National Common Mobility Card Programme of India (NCMC) : One Nation , One Card

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is working with the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and central government for implementation of National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) program across the country.

One Nation, One Card for transport mobility was launched earlier in March 2019 by our Prime Minster . These are bank-issued cards on debit, credit, prepaid card product platform. The customer may use this single card for payments across all segments including metro, bus, suburban railways, toll, parking, smart city and retail.

RuPay Contactless card offers the unique proposition of one card for all Payments. This card can be used for transit payments (Bus, Metro, Cab etc.), toll, parking and retail payments as well.

Objectives of RuPay Contactless :

1. To provide a mechanism for including Low-Value Payments (LVPs) within the ambit of electronic payments.

2. To deliver a product that addresses the concerns of Indian customers taking into consideration the Indian banks and merchants.

3. To motivate Indian customers to switch from cash to electronic payments.

Key features of RuPay Contactless card :

1. Transaction type: It supports online (contact & contactless) and off-line (contactless) transactions.

2. Provision for multiple service areas: Multiple service areas (optional to use with mutual concurrence) to support acquirer/operator specific programs e.g. Passes, season tickets, smart city specific application, loyalty points etc.

3. Card usage: The same card can be used at ATMs, merchant establishments and online (e-commerce) payments in addition to other areas of contactless payments viz., toll, parking and other small value merchant payments.

4. Card issuance: The card can be issued by any member authorized by RBI. It can be issued on the platform of Debit, Prepaid, Credit cards as per the option of issuing entity.

5. Information storage: Requisite information required by acquirer, operators and Banks can be stored on the card or the back-end as per the preference and mutual concurrence of participating entities.

6. Multilevel Wallets: There is a provision of 2 types of wallets to store balance on the card – Issuer controlled Global Wallet and operator, acquirer controlled local balance.

7. Stored value top-up: There is a provision of topping up the stored value through any mode of payment viz., online using card, internet banking, IVR, ATM, cash at customer service point at the option of the issuing entity.

8. Offline Transaction Risk: Since the offline transaction is permitted against available balance, there is minimal risk of any loss either to the bank or the merchant. Underlying technology i.e. EMV is best available globally and has been adopted to safeguard against frauds.

9. Cost of providing contactless card to the customer: RBI has mandated that effective all cards issued by banks in India are EMV. Therefore, the cost of providing a contactless card to the customer will be only marginal as against the steep increase in territories where the mag-stripe ecosystem exists.

10. Synergy with existing technology: RuPay Contactless specifications can co-exist with the existing technology being used by acquirer/operator and migration to common standards may be achieved gradually to suit the convenience of PTO