India Post is planning to launch its payments banking arm by March 2017, according to communications and it minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. He said 60 international consortiums are keen to partner India Post for third partner delivery for insurance and banking, among others. Currently 20,494 India Post branches have come under core banking solutions out of the total 25,000 braches. Core banking in the rest braches will be by April. The numbers of ATMs have risen from four to 850 and by mid-April it will reach 1000, he said. India posts received in-principle approval from Reserve Bank of India on September 2015 for setting up of payments bank within 18 months. It has also received clearance for funds from the Public Investment Board for the payment banks.