App brings ATM into all pockets

Washington, Feb. 22: Students, including those from India, at a prestigious university in the US have developed a smart phone- based app which can bring an ATM to every pocket in rural India and has the potential to channel $ 4.7 trillion in purchasing power through digital medium.

Developed by the Graduate student Spriha Bhandari, who is originally from India, and a group of other students from Cornell University, the application called “Pocket Change” is a chat bot that enables peer to peer transfer of cash to digital.

Bhandari, 18, said the app was developed as part of the Bill and Milinda Gates Foundation to look into ways towards financial inclusion in the emerging markets wherein people are living on less than $ 2 a day and are basically on a cash- based economy.

“The problem statement posed to us by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was how can we ensure people in rural areas in emerging economies, living on less than $ 2 a day, have an easy, affordable and trusted way to convert their cash into digital and back,” Bhandari said.

“Over the course of the semester, we came up with our final product. For this we used Google Vision to take pictures of the physical cash for the transfer,” she said.

THE APP can channel $ 4.7 trillion in purchasing power through digital medium. POCKET CHANGE is a chat bot that enables peer to peer transfer of cash to digital.