If 'bijli', 'paani' can be subsidised, why not cost of rolling out ATMs?

A whole raft of inter-connected contracts and deals in the industry will now have to be reworked

It’s happening too fast, too soon in the automated teller machine (ATM) industry – network operators who hitched their fortunes to the inter-change fee now face its unravelling; it threatens to take the entire ecosystem down with it. If bijli, sadak and paani can be subsidised, why not the cost of rolling out ATMs? You read it here first — a demand that the industry be given “infrastructure” status is doing the rounds; and yes, with a subsidy thrown in. It tells you we are in a right royal mess.

And it’s not network operators alone who are in the quicksand. 

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