Govt ropes in ICICI Bank to enable cashless payments on e-NAM; to end traditional transaction modes for trading at mandis

New Delhi: The government has engaged private lender ICICI Bank to enable online payments at 470 mandis integrated with national portal of electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), a senior Agriculture Ministry official said on Thursday. At present, e-NAM participants are doing payments through traditional ways via bank branches, debit cards and net banking.  “Farmers have started trading online within mandi. We want online payments to be smooth and without any delay. Therefore, ICICI Bank has been roped in as a banker for e-NAM,” the official told PTI. ICICI Bank will enable BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on the e-NAM portal for making cashless payments, the official added. The effort is to provide seamless experience for making online payment of trade and services undertaken on the e-NAM platform. At present, 470 mandis across 14 states are live and 90 commodities are being traded on e-NAM platform, which was launched in April 2016. The target is to connect 585 mandis with e-NAM by March 2018. In the first phase, farmers are trading agri-produce via e-NAM portal within a mandi though the government’s aim is to allow e-trading between mandis within the state and later between mandis of two states. The e-NAM model aims at revolutionising agri markets by ensuring better price discovery, bringing in transparency and competition to enable farmers to get improved remuneration for their produce moving towards ‘One Nation, One Market’.