CASHING IN ON CASHLESS INDIA

More than cash management, CMS Info Systems is creating moats around adjacencies that blend technology, trust, and scale.

- V. KESHAVDEV

WHAT'S THE HIGHEST point in Indian banking? Not metaphorically, but quite literally.

It’s a tiny village called Kerey in Leh district of Ladakh, a high-altitude settlement near the Line of Actual Control with neighbouring China. The climate here is anything but normal with the mercury swinging from -10° C to 3° C on a good day. To get there, you must pass through the Namika La—a mountain pass 21,000 ft above sea level. But because of a relentless financial inclusion drive, three domestic banks have set up branches with a sprinkling of ATMs dotting the scenic Union Territory, where tourism is the big revenue driver. It's in this terrain that cash vans rumble along to keep cash in circulation between banks and ATMs, courtesy of CMS Info Systems.

As India’s largest cash logistics and ATM management company, CMS services 72,000+ ATMs across 97% of the country’s districts. In Uttarakhand, it airlifts currency notes to the Kedarnath temple at 11,755 ft. Every month, its fleet of 4,500 vans and mini-vans trundle over a million kilometres to ensure that from Ladakh to Kanyakumari, cash keeps moving.

But here's the irony. Cash was supposed to be dead, especially in a digital payments era where, at last count, over 18 billion transactions were processed monthly through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The digital revolution—etched into QR codes pasted on roadside stalls and embedded in every payment app—has yet to unseat the enduring presence of Indian banknotes.