Bengaluru: The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), State Bank of India (SBI), and the Government of Karnataka’s Department of e-Governance have partnered to enable and implement e-RUPI, a cashless and contactless payment option for students under its scholarship programme.
The Karnataka Government will use e-RUPI to ensure a leak-proof delivery of education fees to eligible students by paying digitally to the college/Institute. E-vouchers will be sent to qualified students’ mobile phones by the Karnataka government. The voucher code can also be acquired through a feature phone.
Students will be able to redeem the e-RUPI at the designated colleges/institutes for the purpose of paying their fees. The designated institutes will use an application or a POS machine to scan the QR code or SMS string displayed by the students in order to redeem e-RUPI. This procedure will eliminate the need for students to deliver real token in order to avail scholarship.
“e-RUPI is indeed a very powerful tool for governments to use as it allows direct transfer of benefits to the targeted beneficiary, with safety and security,” said Rajiv Chawla, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (DPAR) (e-governance), Karnataka Government.
The instrument ensures that the beneficiary receives the benefit in accordance with the scheme’s guidelines. Each transaction is linked to the beneficiary and the institution as part of this programme, ensuring that the e-Voucher can be redeemed at the college where the student has enrolled.
“On 02/08/2021, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India introduced the e-RUPI (UPI Prepaid Voucher) for Covid – 19 vaccination as the first use case. The government has been planning to increase the use of e-RUPI to other use cases such as DBT, Scholarships, Kerosene oil distribution, subsidised distribution of food grains, donations, and shopping due to the ease of use and secure and cashless features,” informed Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, Managing Director, Retail & Digital Banking, State Bank of India.
“State Bank of India is one of the leading banks in the implementation of e-RUPI for other use cases by providing end-to-end solution to the Government of Karnataka for distribution of scholarships to students for their studies,” he added.
