After spending the weekend trying not to finish the Easter eggs, thoughts turn to fresh air and exercise – and I’m happy to see contactless can be used in the great outdoors!

In the Lake District (a National Park in the UK), new contactless/Chip and PIN parking machines will be installed in the car parks (with fairly remote locations), to provide visitors with a better choice of payment method. And back in town, in Bristol, the council is working with the local bus company to introduce pre-paid contactless cards – which will hopefully be extended to be used on trains, ferries and the proposed rapid transit network. Yet another council utilising smart card technology for their transportation needs.

But as chocholics fight the withdrawal symptoms hopefully they can just grab a small bar of chocolate with one of the 12million contactless cards on issue in the UK…

This week on C-ITV, we speak to Satish Menon, Executive Vice President of Citi Growth Ventures to find out about about Citi’s latest NFC project in Bangalore, India. Satish shares his views on the importance of partnerships for such trials and how vital a great communications campaign is to support both merchants and customers before, and during such projects.