"We want to enter the banking infrastructure sector in a big way... construct a chain of ATMs and money boxes and lease them to banks," Kishore A Chaukar, managing director, Tata Industries Ltd, said in Chennai. "We are talking to RBI, which has so far not allowed non-banking companies to enter the sector," he added.

Banking infrastructure is a new thrust area for Tata Industries, one of the two holding companies of the Tata Group. It focuses on investments in new and high tech areas.

Chaukar said that some of the banks, with which Tata Industries discussed the idea, had shown interest in the initiative. "There is no strong ideological resistance to ownership of banking infrastructure by a non-banking institutions," he said.

Though RBI doesn''t allow non-banking institutions or corporates to own banking infrastructure, these are expected to materialize in India in four or five years, he said.

He said electronic money boxes, manned by the security agencies, could be installed near commercial establishments for depositing cash and could be linked to the bank''s servers so that cash deposited in the boxes could be credited into the accounts.

Currently, cash machine in the country can handle only two or three categories of currencies. Tata Industries is also in discussion with IIT-Madras for developing machines that can handle about five categories of currency notes, he said.

Another group company, Tata Card, would be launching loyalty cards, he said, adding that Tata Industries was tying up with some leading companies to award loyalty points for using the cards. "It is not a credit card," he clarified.

Chaukar said the plan to enter the banking infrastructure sector was part of the company''s goal of entering high-tech profitable business sectors. He said were also looking at the rapidly growing biotech field. A group company Indigene would soon roll out four products, including one for treating allergic cold.

Chaukar said that Tata Industries expects to invest Rs25 crore in areas like biotech and alternate medicine, among its new thrust areas.

The company has proposed overall investments of up to Rs2,500 crore in these areas but it would take some time to identify companies for investment, he said.