• The lab’s output is expected to significantly help in bridging the last mile connectivity gaps and enable advanced user experiences such as immersive doorstep banking.

Bengaluru: The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) in India has launched the country’s first 5G use case lab for banking and financial services.

The lab will identify India-specific use cases of 5G in the banking and financial services sector and support the sector to implement 5G technologies on par with developed countries.

As part of the initiative, IDRBT has also announced a 5G Hackathon and has invited ideas and interest-to-demonstrate innovative 5G Applications focused on the sector. 

The setting up of the lab was initiated following the government’s decision to assign IDRBT with a research project on “5G Use Case Lab for Banking and Financial Services”.

Immersive doorstep banking

The lab’s output is expected to significantly help in bridging the last mile connectivity gaps and enable advanced user experiences such as immersive doorstep banking.

Hari Ranjan Rao, Joint Secretary, Dept. of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Govt. of India, on Friday (September 11) launched the first-of-its-kind lab at an e-event organised for the board members of various banks. 

Speaking on the occasion Rao stressed the importance of integration with various industry verticals to take the benefits of 5G to all citizens. 

The Govt. he says is transforming itself from a regulator to that of an enabler, for instance by establishing 5G testbeds, like the present one for the banking and financial sector and by providing liberal access to spectrum for research test and trials. 

He also urged various players in the ecosystem to collaborate and enable bottom-up innovation by involving multiple startups across industries. 

“Such a collaborative effort is essential for reducing digital divide”, he said adding that regional language support would be a key to providing last-mile connectivity and reaching out to the unbanked, especially across rural India. India has the second-largest mobile penetration in the world and has a diverse digital divide.

The lab would collaborate with financial services organizations, service providers, academic institutions and startups, to promote agility and innovations for enhanced customer experience. 

The lab will also work on financial inclusion and rural connectivity, futuristic ATM/Mobile banking, claim processing, fraud detection, enhanced customer experience leveraging IoT, distributed ledger, VR and AR, AI and ML, network slicing technologies and security technologies to ensure the trust is built into the technology from the day of 5G adoption.

The lab will also assess the security gaps in 5G technologies and services would also be identified along with 5G use cases.

Those who are interested to participate in the 5G Hackathon will have to send in their proposals by September 30, 2020.