already conducting a pilot for the disbursement of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme funds in Jharkhand with Union Bank, ICICI Bank Ltd and Bank of India, where micro-ATMs will be deployed for payments. Meanwhile, the task force is considering a technology platform on which separate accounts for kerosene, LPG and fertilizers or subsequently other subsidies could be created for individual beneficiaries, tracking how much of the entitlement has been availed of.
“Separate accounts for entitlements such as kerosene, fertilizer, LPG can be maintained,” Nilekani said at a recent seminar in Delhi. “It will re-engineer the public sector delivery model by dealing with the underlining plumbing to prevent leakages in the social welfare schemes.”
Remya Nair contributed to this story.