NXP Semiconductors and A Little World have together piloted an RFID based mobile payment solution in collaboration with seven banks in four states in India - Uttarakhand, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh, reports the Hindu. The project covers 450 villages, and allows cash deposits, cash withdrawals, utility payments, money transfers, micro-insurance, and cashless payments without physical branches. Banks that have deployed this solution include State Bank of India in Uttarakhand, Mizoram and Meghalaya, and Union Bank, Axis Bank, Andhra Bank, State Bank of Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh Grameena vikas Bank in Andhra Pradesh.

Readers should remember that RFID chips will add to the cost of the mobile handset, though the contactless solution is simpler to use than existing mobile payment options. Also, RFID chips aren’t neccesarily foolproof - they contain important user information which can be read and misused. More on that at Wikipedia.