One Nation One Card

One Nation One Card is an open-loop EMV based payment card for providing a hassle-free experience to the customers at various transport modes and payment systems across the country.

Why “One Nation One Card”?

Urban transport plays a crucial role in commuting from one place to another. It is the backbone of a strong and prosperous economy and includes various modes of transport like the metro, bus, and suburban trains among others. The fares collected from these are mostly in cash causing problems like cash handling, revenue leakage, cash reconciliation, etc. 

To deal with these challenges, the transport operators have taken up many initiatives for digitizing the fare collection using Automatic Fare Collection Systems (AFC). The system introduced the usage of closed-loop cards which helped a lot in digitizing the collection. 

However, these systems are currently imported with the help of foreign vendors and the installation, as well as maintenance costs of such systems, are quite high, leading to precious loss of foreign exchange. Also, closed-loop cards have a major disadvantage. They are not interoperable and hence the customers fail to use them in different modes of transport. The cards are also not enabled for retail transactions. 

Keeping these in mind, the Government felt the need for an indigenous AFC system which would be an affordable interoperable system. So they introduced the “One Nation One Card” for all types of digital transactions. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) took the initiative for standardization and indigenization of the complete ecosystem for the card, known as the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC).

Development of NCMC Ecosystem

NCMC cards are EMV cards with enhanced safety measures and dual interface (both contact and contactless). It can be used for normal daily retail payments like a credit/debit card as well as low-value payments for various segments like transport applications, smart cities, toll, parking, and others. They have specifications to support payment products besides transport applications like monthly passes, season tickets, etc. Thus the customers can use the card for a variety of purposes and can be the one card to meet all the needs.

C-DAC drafted that the interface possesses specifications like Card, AFC system, and Banking interface. The complete specifications of the reader-mechanical gate interface, reader-AFC interface, and AFC-bank interface were proposed and implemented by the C-DAC. The specifications were reviewed and approved by a special group of experts chaired by MoHUA. These specifications have been submitted to BIS for adoption as a National Standard.

C-DAC developed the NCMC compliant AFC system software consisting of backend as well as frontend software. Bharat Electronics Limited was employed for making the Gates and Readers hardware. The Validation Terminal of the system is certified according to the international standards of EMVCo.

This is the country’s first indigenously developed payment ecosystem for transport consisting of NCMC card, an automatic fare collection system, known as “Sweekar” and an Automatic fare collection gate called “Swagat”. With this development, India joins only a select group of nations who have been successfully able to deploy and develop the technology on an open-loop platform.    

Implementation of NCMC Ecosystem Model

The implementation of the NCMC Ecosystem was made to provide a digital fare collection platform to vendors and banks where customers can make digital fare payments with the help of NCMC cards issued by any bank using an AFC system from any vendor.

Customers are not restricted to any single bank but can get associated with any bank of their choice. It also helps Transport Operators to reduce installation and maintenance costs, besides removing vendor locking. The acceptance of NCMC cards issued by multiple banks will help achieve a higher rate of digital penetration for fare collection.  

Advantages of NCMC Ecosystem

With the fulfillment of One Nation One Card, the commuters as well as the country can experience several benefits.

• They can now carry only this one card, which is a regular credit/debit card with an added benefit of wallet functionality. While one can use this card for withdrawing cash and retail shopping, he can also use it for payment in various modes of transport like metro, trains, etc.
• The NCMC system reduces dependence on foreign technology. This led to reduced costs of installation and maintenance as well as a reduced import bill as it was manufactured locally.
• NCMC ecosystem also facilitates more indigenous production and deployment in the Indian transit system. This could also be beneficial for the nation as it can be self-reliant, opening up more job opportunities.
• Field trials have started at Delhi Metro Rail Corporation across a few stations. The pilot implementation will boost the hardware reliability and help in the fine-tuning of the software. 

International Recognition

The NCMC based AFC system was launched on an international platform by the honorable Prime Minister at the Vastral Gam Metro Station in Ahmedabad on 4th March 2019. 

The technology developed by C-DAC is going to be adopted across various modes of transport over a while. Hence, commuters will get the facilities of using a single card for paying the fare of all modes of transport across every city in the country.

Conclusion

This card was another step towards digital India by the Government. People no longer need to carry cash and different cards with the fear of theft, nor do they need to stand in long queues for laying hands on tickets for various transports. The card can save time as well as energy. Secured by a safe globally accepted EMV technology, one need not fear losing their money. NCMC is not only valuable to the customers but it is also beneficial to the banks and the operators.

A part of the “Make in India” project, India no longer needs to depend on foreign countries.  This can certainly prove to be a revolutionary move from the Government and be a major boost to the economy of the country. 

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