Lyra’s last-mile solution for rural India was announced as the winner of the ‘Best use of technology in FinTech‘ award at the recently held 11th edition of India Digital Awards – a virtual award function organized by IAMAI.
Lyra bagged the award in the Payments and Fintech Awards category.
Lyra’s last-mile connectivity solution for rural India
Lyra’s last-mile connectivity solution was deployed for rural India to solve the transaction processing problems by enabling banks to conduct transactions, banking services and boost financial inclusion in rural and remote areas. This solution is successfully working in rural areas and is helping the government, banks and Fintechs to achieve the goal of making “each village digital village”.
Lyra is acting as a managed connectivity solution provider for one of the key projects of the Indian Government, ‘DARPAN’. DARPAN or Digital Advancement of Rural Post Offices for a New India is a project to enable last-mile banking financial services to the poorest and to the remotest. It provides a low-power technology solution using POS to enable each of around 1.29 Lakhs Branch Post Offices to improve the level of services being offered to rural customers. The project improves the quality of service, adds value to services, and achieves “financial inclusion” of the un-banked rural population. Lyra’s SIM Solution is being used to enable connectivity on particular devices using multiple telco SIMs.
The project was unique and challenging since most of the locations were remote and rural and last-mile connectivity is a big issue in rural India.
Restriction on traveling and restriction on physically handling the cash was one of the biggest issues faced by rural India. Because of the digital illiteracy in the remote areas and the lack of awareness about digital transactions, people were afraid to transact digitally, but the pandemic gave them courage and a chance to use digital payments.
Poor network connectivity is another issue that is faced by rural and remote India. There is no uninterrupted network for online transactions. As there is a network connectivity problem in remote locations, the provision of micro ATMs consists of features that make withdrawals easier, quick, and convenient for the residents of rural areas. Lyra has provided rural areas with secured technology for successful payment transactions.
Another challenge came in the form of telco locations. Not all telcos work in all locations, since all these locations were remote it was important to send the correct telco sim to make the device work. To achieve this Lyra did a feasibility study of the locations using latitude and longitude before SIM allocation and dispatch for each location. As a backup, buffer sims from each telco were also sent to the district offices. Since all these locations are rural, it is not known which operator sim would work in which location, a geo-location study was done before sending sims to each location.
Solutions implemented and deployed by Lyra
Lyra CONNECT: Lyra Connect is a connectivity platform that uses both wired and wireless technologies to connect rural India.
- Lyra managed services for broadband connections.
- Lyra as a managed service provider for last-mile connectivity for POS, small offices, bank branches, micro-atm, financial inclusion program, ATM machines, ultra-small bank branches, smart electricity meters, different types of POS machines, etc.
- Lyra M2M sim based connectivity
Lyra’s STATIC IP: This feature was a big plus for this project as it enabled bi-directional communication which was needed for the project. With this feature, DOP is able to send updates to the terminal & to take full control of the terminal (like remote desktop) using Lyra static IP. Remote access to the device helped DOP to resolve field issues immediately without visiting the field location.
Lyra PORTAL: Lyra portal immediately isolates the issue whether it is related to software, hardware, network, etc. All the sims were segregated as per the locations (district offices) in the Lyra portal. 3G sims and connectivity are enabled for this project as the device supports 3G. Lyra portal is customized to show if the device is connected to 3G or 2G.
Lyra NAC: This solution is solving the problem by easing the transactions in rural India by enabling Banks to conduct transactions in rural India | Financial Inclusion | Banking services to remote areas. Lyra’s NAC is a highly secure and powerful server that provides a quick, and updated channel for digital transactions, it receives and transfers any transaction flow securely from any kind of POS terminal and connects it to any type of network (PSTN/GPRS/ADSL/2G/3G/4G/Broadband) with any existing transaction protocol and without any glitch in between.
With these solutions, Lyra was able to help to enable digital payment contributing towards the implementation of e-governance projects and financial inclusion along with ease and reach of Banking, accessibility of bank accounts, and advance Payment Modes.
Lyra’s last-mile connectivity solution has enabled faster and accurate delivery of citizen service; all citizens of the country have benefitted from this project.
- 1.3 lakh Mobile Handheld devices deployed by the Department of Posts using Lyra’s Last-mile connectivity solution.
- Postal services offered – cash withdrawal, cash deposit, postal life insurance, money order, speed post-booking, etc. many other services like bill payment, recharges are WIP
- Lyra is doing managed connectivity service for 1.30 lakh location across India, most locations are rural
- Processing around 50 lakh transactions daily for DOP.
- Lyra has enabled 16,00,000 POS/locations on its platform using various technologies.
Both projects have played a significant role in this COVID and lockdown situation, and are running full strength even during the lockdown, Lyra was available full time and was providing uninterrupted services to the nation. During lockdown Indian government gave cash to the needy people in rural India, this cash was delivered using this project at the doorstep.
“Today, Lyra’s unique last-mile connectivity solution is being used by several business correspondents to provide banking services using mobile handheld devices in the villages or rural sector at a pan India level,” said Mr. Rajesh Desai, CEO & MD, Lyra India.
Commenting on the win, Mr. Rajesh Desai, CEO & MD, Lyra India, said, “Lyra will continue to play a leading role in India’s journey towards becoming a cashless economy. With our dedication, expertise in technology, and above all, huge investments in terms of time, efforts, and money Lyra will make sure to maintain repute as a leading payment solution company.”
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