The Cabinet on Wednesday approved an increase of 79.3% in the project outlay for setting up the India Post Payments Bank to Rs. 1,435 crore. The move comes three days ahead of the nationwide roll-out of the payment bank by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The additional sum of Rs. 635 crore in the revised cost estimates is on account of Rs. 400 crore for technology costs and Rs. 235 crore for human resource expenses, an official release said. “This launch will more than double the number of bank branches in the country – from the present 1.40 lakh to more than 2.90 lakh,” Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha said.
