Solar-powered ATMs by Vortex Engineering changing Rural Banking Experience

New Delhi: An Indian Innovator is catalyzing a quiet but impacting revolution by designing, developing and installing unique solar-powered ATMs in power less rural India. 

Initially 400 solar ATMs, aptly called Gramateller ('gram' means village), the world's largest order, tendered by leading lender of country State Bank of India (SBI). 

The ATMs were installed in 2010-11 across the states, usually within 20-50 km away from the district headquarters, Vijay Babu, CEO of Vortex Engineering, which makes these units is quite upbeat for the future prospects . 

Following the foot prints of  SBI the Catholic Syrian Bank has also placed an order for 50 Gramatellers and Indian Bank for 20, while 10 more have been ordered by other banks of country. 

Vijay Babu and Lakshminarayan Kannan, who led the foundation of Vortex Engineering , are the alumni of India’s premier engineering institute Indian Institute of Technology-Madras  (IIT-M) and the brains behind the Gramateller. 

"Our plans to operate ATMs on solar power were greeted with utter disbelief. We faced challenges in beginning in getting them adopted by our end users, the rural people, who are not particularly tech-savvy. But once they realized that they were getting control of their own money, they welcomed it wholeheartedly," said Vijay Babu in an interview. 

"The workload has increased with more and more people using these facilities which, in most cases, are the only ATMs within 20 km or more, thanks to the solar power backup," added Babu. 

The two innovative entrepreneurs took up the project in 2004-05 at IIT-M's suggestion, developing and fine-tuning the product until it became commercially viable by 2008-09. 

Indian Institute of Technology-Madras , which had been initially approached by the banks to develop such rural alternative to the existing ATMs, passed on the proposal to Vortex Engineering. Vijay Babu and Lakshminarayan Kannan have since inked a royalty agreement with their alma mater. 

"Conventional ATMs may not be viable in areas subject to 8 to 10 hours of power cuts which is the common condition in power hunger country like India, given their dependence on power generators and air-conditioning. But thanks to the rural Gramateller, villagers don't have to undertake time-consuming trips to cities or towns for money," said Lakshminarayan Kannan. 

Vortex Engineering is the only company in India making it to the Time magazine 2011 list of "10 start-ups that will change your life", selected out of 31 companies honored as "Technology Pioneers" by the World Economic Forum (WEF). 

Vortex Engineering was recently selected as the latest entrant to Business Call to Action (BCtA), a global initiative that encourages private sector efforts to fight poverty, supported by the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), among others. 

"The 'no frills' Gramateller has a 12-hour strong power back-up, provided there is good sunlight at least for five hours daily. Solar panels convert these rays into electrical energy, storing them in a battery. A single unit saves more than 90 per cent of the yearly expenditure incurred on operating an ATM, which works out to Rs.1.44 lakh, half of the amount being accounted by air-conditioning," said Sabarinath Nair, marketing manager, Vortex Engineering. 

Gramateller comes with a biometric touch pad to restrict fraud and tell villagers that their money is always safe. It can also have capability to dispense soiled notes in the interiors where crisp currency notes are suspected of being fakes, Sabarinath Nair said.

Normal ATMs costs between Rs.3.5-5 lakh and another Rs.60,000 and Rs.80,000 for the UPS and AC. Gramatellers cost below Rs.3 lakh each, which included a built-in UPS and did not required AC, he said. 

Although solar panels for a unit needs an additional investment of Rs.1.5 lakh, but have no operational and maintenance cost unlike diesel power generators, these pay for themselves within 24 month. 

Given Gramateller's success in harnessing solar energy and its commercial feasibility, other developing countries from Africa and East Asia has shown their interest in the technology, said Babu.

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