The Defence Accounts Department (DAD) of the Ministry of Defence has signed MoUs with four banks to onboard them as SPARSH service centres across 1,128 branches of these banks in the country, officials said.

• The System for Pension Administration (RAKSHA) or SPARSH is a web-based system for processing pension claims and crediting the pension directly into the bank accounts of defence pensioners without any external intermediary.
• DAD has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the Bank of India, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India and Utkarsh Small Finance Bank in New Delhi to onboard them as SPARSH service centres across 1,128 branches of the four banks, the defence ministry said in a statement.