740 Plus Universities in India open for CashLess economy

The breakup of various categories of Universities in India is as under:-

UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION
Total No. of Universities in the Country as on 14.12.2015
Universities	Total No.
State Universities	342
Deemed to be Universities	125
Central Universities	46
Private Universities	227
Total	740

          A typical Indian University is spread over 125 acres as a semi-closed township.

          The following table indicates the acreage of few Indian Universities.

Rank	University	Founded	State	Campus Area (In Acres)
1	G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology	1960	Uttarakhand	12,661
2	University of Hyderabad	1974	Telangana	2,300
3	Osmania University	1918	Telangana	1,600
4	Punjab Agricultural University	1962	Punjab	1,510
5	Banaras Hindu University	1916	Uttar Pradesh	1,350
6	Aligarh Muslim University	1920	Uttar Pradesh	1,155
7	Bangalore University	1886	Karnataka	1,100
8	Sri Venkateswara University	1954	Andhra Pradesh	1,000
9	Jawaharlal Nehru University	1969	Delhi	1,000
10	Annamalai University	1929	Tamil Nadu	1,000
11	Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences / Allahabad Agriculture Institute	1910	Uttar Pradesh	900
12	Mizoram University	2001	Mizoram	978
13	Tamil University	1981	Tamil Nadu	900
14	Guru Ghasidas University	1983	Chattisgarh	875
15	Banasthali Vidyapith	1935	Rajashthan	850

          The primary residents of a university campus are students/teaching staff/support staff.

          The populace of the university varies from 5,000 to 25,000 depending on the courses it offers.

          To sustain the university residents, a large number of commercial, semi-commercial establishments exist within the campus.

          Normally the University’s stores serve the residents. The canteens serve the students.

          Universities can be transformed into CashLess economies rather than Cash economy.

          As the literate levels are high within University campuses, they offer right mix of customer base for any organisation interested to disseminate CashLess techniques.

          The concept of a Smart Card to transact electronically within the campus goes back to the year 2007.

          UGC disburses all its payments including scholarships through the electronic mode only. Click here for the UGC circular.  

          Any University student desiring to receive selected UGC scholarships is expected to open a bank account with designated Canara Bank.  

          There have been many attempts to introduce LessCash techniques in the Indian education system.

          However, so far a single electronic payment system linking the complete gamut of education system is yet to be introduced.

          Typical features of a Education Smart Card

01)  Aadhaar authenticated

02)  Scholarships credit

03)  Loyalty points

04)  Sub-Wallets i.e Food, Library, Hostel etc

05)  Loan disbursement

06) Loan repayment

07) Micro Insurance

08) Mini Overdraft facility

09) Credit Tool Monitoring

The market is ready, are the service providers ready?

Additional Reading Material:

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