For the last decade or so the
corridors of policy making are frequently visited by the white walkers of
FINANCIAL INCLUSION, even the so much hallabolla of “Hindutva” new ideology and
god knows what not is also going along the same ideology of the previous
government. RBI is going full guns blazing and came up with “new” and “innovative”
means, such as white label ATM( which ironically is much like the white
elephants, too costly to maintain) and Payment/Small banks( which is a cheap rip-off
of methods already utilized world over like “M-Pesa”. The stark irony is that
the concept was copied without any payment to those who developed it and then
named payment bank)
I am not a holy cow either what I am trying
to propose is just a step ahead of the work already done by others. The beast
if financial non-inclusion can be tamed to a certain extent with the help of
telecom revolution.
The idea is very simple yet powerful,
what if instead of going to the bank I could check my bank balance and other
bank related things right here in my humble abode with my simpleton cell phone
without any internet connection?? wait a minute walk a step further what if the
balance of my cell phone is actually my bank account balance and instead of
going to the bank /ATM to get cash how about if I only some of my balance to
others. No going to the bank, no cash in the pocket and not contingent risk of
cash transactions plus added interest on the bank balance as I have the flexibility
of taking money out of the account at the very moment when I have to make the
payment.
What??? Risk !!! financial illetracy
bla-bla wait !! don’t jump the gun, let us see a case at hand. I am a poor
MGNREGA worker, my bank account hardly touches 10,000 rupees and on a daily
basis I usually spend maximum 300 rupees. What will this scheme has done for
me?
- I have a flexi account, apart from 500rs that is the balance of my cell phone (aka-wallet) the rest is treated like a fixed deposit as soon as the balance becomes low in my cell phone some money flows from that fixed deposit and makes my cell phone balance again 500.
- I don’t have to carry cash, I can even transfer any petty amount to anyone’s cell phone as a means of payment and as soon as their cell phones balance crosses their specified limit the rest goes into their flexi account. So even they don’t have to go to the bank. However if they want they can get cash from the bank or ATM anytime they want.
- As I don’t keep much cash( usually people keep safe cash so that in case of ATM malfunction they can use it---it happens a lot) I acquire more interest
- I need only a basic phone no internet, no smartphone and no data charges. Transactions are via USSD(Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) and to maintain it the provider might use the interest on the mobile balance( as it will be specified by customers)
- I can also be targeted with better financial products etc. and my transactional data which was never recorded gets organized and the so called Big Data firms can use it to sell me stuff.
What is in it for the implementing agencies?
1. Major part of infrastructure already there
2. Can even give social security benefits via
this scheme
3. Can work for rejuvenating “Sarkari companies”
eg: while State Bank of India has one of the largest NON PERFORMING ASSETS,
BSNL is a loss making PSU. If they both join hands and use their reach among
the masses to to do this type of business both can become profitable and that
too helping “Me”-A MGNREGA worker in the process.
4. Finance minister himself reiterated that poor
are more dependable and bankable, I believe him—any day better then believing
than Vijay Malaya and getting drunk.
Bottom-line is makers of our
constitution trusted in the uneducated voters and made the most amazing document;
we must also trust the financially illiterate population to turn around the world’s
biggest democracy to the most financially connected country.
