Question 1: Carefully read the text given below which contains about 400 words. Then using your own words as far as possible, summarize it in not more than 120 words. Finally, supply a title for your summary.

The new age banking driven by technology and smarter banks is changing the way Indians manage their money. For millions of users all over this vast country automated teller machines (ATMs) are proving to be a boon. The underlying message is ‘empowerment of customers’ who increasingly see ATM cards as a must have tool. Nothing illustrates this better than Karnataka Bank’s strategy of branding its ATM as a “Money Plant.”

For generations of Indians, used to stuffy old branches and union dominated service at banks, reforms in the way banks conduct their business, seems like an upheaval. The younger generation takes this change for granted. The focus now is to provide ‘easy banking’ at lower costs and right next to the consumers’ home or workplace. Initially, foreign banks and private Indian banks pushed the ATM edge. Now, public sector and co-operative banks have also caught on and are aggressively rolling out nation-wide ATM networks.

Significantly, the revolution is not just a big city feature. It is getting broad-based into smaller cities, towns and rural areas. Punjab National Bank Chairman and Managing Director S.S. Kohli says that ATMs are the manifestation of next generation banking. “It not only helps in reducing the workload on traditional branches and operational costs, but also makes banking more accessible for customers.”

Propelling the growth of ATMs are two factors: convenience for customer and better branding for the bank with the added benefit of lower cost of service. In terms of the cost per ATM, a full-fledged state-of-art machine that has multiple features and the surrounding infrastructure costs around Rs. 10 lakh. Lower end ATMs that do not support features like online change of passwords cost around Rs. 6 lakh to install. This money is easily recovered. As a leading banker puts it, it only needs 150 transactions per day over a spread of three years to recover the investment. In places, where the transactions are more –200 to 250 per day- most banks end up installing a second machine at a slightly lesser cost (some of the communication infrastructure is then shared). There is a significant cost benefit for the banks as ATMs play a significant role in driving down the transaction costs.