The Hindu Business Line : ICICI Bank gives green push to debit cards

Chennai April 3 In the coming months, ICICI Bank will strive to establish a connection in the minds of its customers between using their debit cards and saving the planet.

Today, most people use debit cards to draw money from ATMs and spend the money at shops and restaurants. ICICI Bank wants its customers to use debit cards straightaway in shops and restaurants and thereby minimise the use of paper currency.

Less paper use is more environment-friendly.

The Reserve Bank of India's figures say that in 1935, India had 100 million pieces of currency notes in circulation. As at the end of March 2005, the notes in circulation were 36,985 million — or, about 370 times more.

"Imagine how much of energy, how much ink would be consumed in making the paper," says Dr Nachiket Mor, Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank.

The war against currency notes is one of the two steps envisaged under the bank's recent `Go green India' initiative, the other one being to coax customers to go online, in order to reduce paper-based transactions.

The initiative itself is a small step towards aligning all the bank's activities to environment sustainability, Dr Mor told Business Line.The bank's top brass is mulling bringing in what it calls `environmentally sustainable project finance' or ESPF guidelines.

"At present, it is nothing more than a thinking. We don't know what shape the guidelines will take," Dr Mor said.When fully evolved, the guidelines will redefine the basis on which loans are given by the bank, with a focus on environmental sustainability.

Dr Mor pointed out that there were two broad approaches to the issue. First, to frame rules — do's and don'ts to ensure environmental protection — on the basis of which project finance will be made.

The second approach is to take a stand as `do whatever you want, but it will cost you to go against environment protection'.

Dr Mor said that his personal sense was that the second approach might be more practical. He said that one of the means of putting a cost on any assault on environment was to develop a carbon trading market within India.

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