Kerala declared first State to enable digital banking service

Tags: State News

On 7 January 2023, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that Kerala has become the first state in the country where the banking sector has now gone completely digital.

An Overview of the news

• Kerala is the first state in the country to digitise at least one savings and current account in all districts.

• It is noteworthy in this context that in the year 2021, Thrissur in Kerala became the first district to implement full digital banking. After this, Kottayam district of the state also implemented a full digital banking system.

• Encouraged by all these, under the leadership of Reserve Bank of India and State Level Bankers Committee, the work of complete banking digitization was carried forward and it has been successfully implemented in the entire state.

• Congratulating the residents of the state for this achievement achieved by Kerala, the Chief Minister said that this has been possible due to social intervention through local self-governance institutions as well as infrastructure development and technological advances in the banking sector.

• The state chief minister also said in his address that the state government's ambitious 'Kerala Fiber Optic Network' project, which is almost complete, will bridge the digital divide. With this, every person in the state will be able to get a similar network.

Kerala Fiber Optic Network (K-FON) Project

• K-FON will ensure internet facility for all in the state and a 17,155 km long optic fibre cable network has been laid. Once it is completed, the internet will be available to all in the state at affordable rates or free of cost.

• It is noteworthy in this context that Kerala has recently received three 'Digital India' awards for progress in the digital sector.