Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
ATM
For those living in urban India, ATMs are a common sight; one on every corner. But imagine the plight of those in rural areas. For them, every time they wish to withdraw money, they have to often travel miles to reach the bank itself, given that they have little or no access to ATMs.
It’s not the question of banks not wanting to provide them with the ATM facility, but there are several factors that are detrimental. One of the biggest considerations is that of the cost of operation. Secondly, things like power shortage further make it unviable. This is what prompted Chennai-based Vortex Engineering to develop a solar-powered ATM that could be deployed even in the most remote parts of the country. The unique patented technology used in Vortex ATMs has been developed to help banks reach out to rural areas and the financial inclusion of the unbanked population.
They developed the solar-powered Gramateller Duo with the help of IIT Madras. The fact that it consumes so less power also brings down the running cost. Additionally, it generates less heat so it doesn't require an AC. Kamal Sharma, VP of sales & marketing, Vortex Engineering says, “On the cost side, the Gramateller Duo has lower initial costs (30-50% lesser) and lower running costs. Typical ATMs (power consumption – 300 to 600 W) plus their air conditioning would result in monthly electricity bills to the tune of Z 7,000-10,000. Gramateller requires no air-conditioning and consumes very less power, thus can bring down monthly electricity bills to less than 600.”
Once they had an ATM running on less power, they could further explore the use of solar panels and discovered that a solar panel of size less than 80 sq. ft. would suffice to run the ATM entirely on solar power.
All of these factors combined means that these ATMs can operate at temperatures varying from 0°C to 50°C without a glitch. Thus, it makes them ideal to be deployed in the most rugged desert area or even in areas of high altitude.
Vortex has now the world's largest number of Solar ATM installations. Kamal says “It rolled out India's or possibly the world’s first large-scale installation of solar-powered ATMs, by setting up 300 of these for State Bank of India.”
(Adapted from https://www.edumantra.net)
