Defence Accounts Department (DAD), Ministry of Defence has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Bank of India, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India and Utkarsh Small Finance Bank in New Delhi to onboard them as SPARSH [System for Pension Administration (Raksha)] Service Centres across 1,128 branches of the four banks across the country. The MoUs will provide last-mile connectivity to pensioners, especially in remote areas where they do not have technical wherewithal to log on to SPARSH.

These Service Centres will become an interface for pensioners for SPARSH, providing an effective medium to update their profile; register grievances; digital annual identification; data verification, besides fetching detailed information regarding their monthly pension. The access to these centres would be provided free of cost, with nominal service charges being borne by the DAD.

With these MoUs, SPARSH Services would now be available at over 26,000 branches of a total of 15 banks across the country. This is in addition to 199 dedicated service centres of DAD, and more than 3.75 lakh Common Service Centers across the country.

SPARSH is an initiative of the Ministry of Defence which aims to provide comprehensive solution to the defence pensioners. It is a fundamental change in managing defence pensions as it focuses on bringing in efficiency, responsiveness and transparency.