The service will help a mobile subscriber send money orders electronically through SMSes. The SMS by the sender will be encashable at all post offices in the country.

In the first phase of BSNL’s plan, anyone who wishes to send a money through the money (order) transfer service will have to go to his nearest post office and transfer the money by way of an SMS. The SMS will contain a unique code. The person who receives this SMS can go to his nearest post office and collect the money by showing the code.

This process is expected to save a lot of money as the SMS will reach in real time. This will also help those who do not have a proper address for physical delivery of the money order.

Groceries on SMS

In the next stage of BSNL’s plans, a person will be able to use his mobile phone for even buying goods at the local kirana shop or any other store, with the help of an electronic authorisation from his bank on his mobile phone.

BSNL Board Director (Consumer Mobility) R K Agarwal told BS that the platform had been test-piloted in Chandigarh and the state-run telecom major expects to roll out the service in association with the postal department, after getting the Reserve Bank of India’s approval.

“The real revolution is going to come when we launch our mobile banking services, on which BSNL is actively working. We have test-piloted a platform in Chandigarh, on which money could be transferred electronically through money orders by sending an SMS,” Agarwal told Business Standard.

He, however, said RBI was cautious in its guidelines for mobile banking, as a result of which the proposed roll-out would happen only in a phased manner. “RBI has a cautious policy as it has to check for frauds that may occur,” he added.

BSNL intends to help users buy merchandise with electronic authorisation from banks. Agarwal said SBI and YES Bank had come forward to participate in BSNL’s mobile banking service platform.

Mobile banking is a concept where you tie up with different banks and system aggregators. “We have already tied up some system integrators, including Obopay,” he added.

NRIs can avail NRI home loans with ease, just like the home loans availed by Indian residents, though there are some dissimilarities between the two kind of loans in terms of documents, repayments and terms of tenure etc.

The rate of interest on NRI home loans is comparatively same as that on regular home loan, but the tenure for NRI home loans is around 7 years to 15 years, where as the regular home loan has tenure of around 25 to 30 years.

Along with this, NRIs can only avail a loan of around 85% and they have to pay the remaining amount themselves. NRIs can pay the remaining amount like through direct remittances from abroad, through Non-Resident External (NRE) account or Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) account.

The down-payment is made through EMIs and NRI’s can pay it by issuing post-dated cheques through (NRE) or (NRO) accounts or via any other account, commended by RBI.

Moreover, NRIs cannot go for a loan tenure that exceeds their retirement age or 60 years.