Public sector lender, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur has decided to reach out to rural areas of Rajasthan on bike. The 'Bank on Bike' facility is expected to increase the depth of financial inclusion in the state.

According to managing director of the bank, Mr. Shiva Kumar, the bank would reach out to 838 villages by March 2012.

"We will employ progressive farmers, retired teachers, kirana shop owners and self employed people as business correspondents (BC) for this job. We will then open outlets in every village with a two-hour fixed transaction time on 6 days a week. One BC would ideally cover three villages on his bike in the stipulated time for delivering banking services through the outlets. This operation would be governed by financial inclusion centres to be set up one each in all the 33 districts of the state," he said speaking on the project.

A business correspondent (BC) will be appointed who will carry a laptop and a data card which will have access to the SBBJ website designed for this process. Biometric cards will be used for the purpose to ease transactions for illiterate village folk.

"We will hire them on a guaranteed an income of Rs 2000 per month. On opening every ‘no frill' account and identity card, the BC will get Rs 20 and Rs 10 respectively. They will also get 0.5% on every withdrawal and 50 paise per account per month as account maintenance charges. Apart from that, they will be entitled for a commission of 0.5% on annual balance per account. Even then their earning is less that Rs 2000, then bank will fill the gap," he said.