Mumbai, July 15: The Reserve Bank of India is to commence pilot run of multiple application smart cards in a bid to finalise the standard procedures for its usage in the country. "The government appointed committee headed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for formulating the standard procedures submitted its report last December and currently the government is in the process of commencing the proof of concept (pilot)", RBI chief general manager (IT) R Gandhi said while inaugurating a seminar on smart cards on Tuesday.
RBI was working closely with the Union IT Ministry on this project, he said adding, depending upon the pilot project the standard procedures would be fine-tuned to suit Indian environment.

Smart Card Forum of India (SCAFI) chairman of e-cash focus group Piyush Khaitan said this project would begin at IIT Mumbai shortly.
Gandhi said during 2002-03, volume of transactions conducted through cheques was 82.53 per cent while e-payments accounted for 17.47 per cent. In value terms, it stood at 94.24 per cent and 5.76 per cent respectively. Bureau Report