Hello, Since quite some time, the Railways has introduced smart cards that can be used on touch screen kiosks to book tickets with varying choices like destination, single/return, number of adults/children and class of travel. The card costs only Rs.100/- and you get a free initial usage of Rs. 50/-. It is a pure cash card with no ID or papers required and is purchased across the counter. To recharge it, simply pay amounts like 50/-, 100/- upto 500/- and you get it recharged across the counter.
I find this technology has tremendous potential for use in various Govt. as well as private organizations where there are long queues on manned counters. For example bill payments for MTNL, BEST. The Post Office is another department that would benefit very much from this. Multiple PO kiosks inside the PO could offer services like stamps, money-order as well as registered letters. Just like the current manned counters, you simply enter the sender and destination address and 2 identical sticker labels with bar codes will pop out. One is to be pasted on the letter and the other is the sender's copy. A smart plate on top of the machine can be the weighing scale for determining the postage as per the weight of the letter/parcel. The letter/parcel is then dropped inside a designated box. An extra feature would be to optically scan the movement of the letter inward as proof of dropping. This kiosk can also be placed in banks and enterprising shops who can be given....say 5% of all earnings through that kiosk. so now the Post Office is not far away but right near your home and the Postal Dept. does not have to invest in land or office manpower to extend its reach. The same technology can be used by courier companies too. MTNL's telephone exchanges too can use these kiosks for bill payments and adding/removing extra services to their subscription like changing plans, enabling CLIP. The kiosks can be linked with wireless networking so that it is immune to cable problems. So any office that experiences long queues for payments can take advantage of this technology. -- Regards, Rony. GNU/Linux ! No Viruses No Spyware Only Freedom. -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
