National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)

Why in news?

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ambitious National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) service for the Delhi Metro’s Airport Express Line via video conferencing.

About NCMC:

• National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is an inter-operable transport card conceived by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of the Government of India.
• The idea of NCMC was floated by the Nandan Nilekani committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) called High level Committee on Deepening of Digital Payments (CDDP).
• The NCMC card is issuable as a prepaid, debit, or credit RuPay card from partnered banks such as the State Bank of India, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, and others
• The NCMC card has 2 instruments on it – a regular debit card which can be used at an ATM, and a local wallet (stored value account), which can be used for contactless payments, without the need to go back to the server or additional authentication. It is envisioned that a single card will be usable for all local travel needs across the country.
• It was launched on 4 March 2019. The transport card enables the user to pay for travel, toll duties (toll tax), retail shopping, and withdraw money.
• It is enabled through the RuPay card mechanism.
• All new metro, and transit payments should be made interoperable through NCMC.

Prelims Question

Consider the following statements regarding National Common mobility Card (NCMC):
1.It was launched by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
2.It is enabled via RuPay card mechanism.
Which among the above statements is/are correct?
(a)1 only 
(b)2 only 
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to prelims question