Delhi University colleges go digital to beat currency woes

New Delhi: To encourage cashless transactions, a Delhi University college has introduced special identity cards to students. These cards can be used as debit cards to make payments in the college.

Laxmibai College is the DU’s first ever college to come up with the facility, which has a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip attached to it and can be used to pay library fine, photocopy, canteen charges, etc. Interestingly, the card was launched two months before the note ban on November 8.

The students can recharge it with an amount ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000. The college authorities say was they had first planned to link payment facility through Paytm but the bank associated with the college suggested to opt for the RFID card.

“The students can recharge their RFID cards from the bank in our college,” a college official said. Many other DU colleges are now going digital by opting for mobile commerce platforms and e-wallet services.

Sri Ram College of Commerce, Kamla Nehru College, Ramjas College, Sukhdev Singh College of Business are already using e-payment method to pay for canteen and other facilities.

Besides, a recently opened cafe at the DU’s North Campus has found a unique way to help students deal with the cash crunch. Xchange Over Coffee (XCo), a cafe near Miranda House, accepts books in lieu of payment for food and beverages.

Shivam Dewan, 23, who opened the café around two months ago, said it is based on the old system of barter in a new form. “We accept books, both fiction and non-fiction, in good condition and give free meal. We are an exchange shack, and promote bartering instead of buying,” he said.

“Many students like me were making payments only through cash earlier but after the demonetisation, we started using e-wallets like Paytm, though we did not find it much difficult as we were already having e-payment service in our college,” said KNC student, Anubhuti Garg.