A "milk" smart card

We know of credit card, debit card, ATM card and even smart card. But Milk Card???

Well, Amul, which has always pioneered new concepts, has brought forth this new concept – Amul Milk Card. And it is a smart card, if that makes one feel any better. This card is like an ATM card – put it in the Milk Card machine, enter your pin and voila, a pouch of milk or any Amul product of your choice will drop down!

This card will now be available to those interested, for free. And like the way we top-up our mobiles, you can top-up the card at all Amul parlours. Just like the mobile payment, once done, you will get an SMS alert giving your balance and every time you make a purchase, you get an SMS alert. The minimum recharge amount is Rs.100 while the maximum recharge amount has been fixed at Rs.3000.

The service is presently being launched at 10 Amul parlours in city and it plans to expand the service to 100 parlours in the coming three months before expanding it to other Amul parlours across the state. This type of smart card or Milk Card is the second collaboration of SBI – it has earlier used the same tie-up with Mother Dairy outlets in Delhi. SBI has already issued around 16,000 Mother Dairy Milk Cards in Delhi, accessible at 300 outlets. And how has the response been? SBI says that it has already recorded transactions worth Rs.8.5 lakh/per day through smart “milk’ cards in Delhi.