While talking on " Man ki Baat " broadcast
yesterday , Shri Narendra Modiji , once again urged the citizens to go " Cash Less
" by making their Mobile phones , their very own bank branch
I am sure , Shri Modiji realizes that no country can
ever become totally cash-less
But , at the same time , India has the greatest
potential to move towards non-cash transactions , considering that , currently
, some 90 % of our transactions are through cash
In order to speed-up this transition , Shri Modi has
appointed a committee of Secretaries , headed by Shri
Amitabh Kant , CEO - NITI Aayog
While thinking up " Ways and Means " to speed
up this transition , I am sure the Committee will consider the following
hurdles :
* India has only
215,000 ATM
machines , with 95 % located in cities
* Then there are
just 1.44 million PoS
( Point of Sales ) / Card Readers for 50 million shops
* This means ,
rural folks just do not have enough " devices " for making digital payments
* At the current
rate of printing , replenishing those OLD notes ( Rs 500 / 1000 ) with NEW
notes ( Rs 500
/ 2,000 ) , will take 18 months !
Even if we
assume that this process ( of printing of NEW notes got started ) , 6 months
ago , it will
take another 12 months for enough CASH to be available to sustain , day to
day purchase / sale by people
* In absence of
these " Devices
" , availability of 70 Crore DEBIT CARDS ( of which , 30
crore are RuPay cards ) ,
is of no help !
It must be
remembered that only 2 months back , some 32 lakh
cards got hacked !
Rural owners (
of RuPay
cards , issued with 25 crore Jan Dhan
accounts ) are not savvy
enough to
change their PIN / Net Banking Passwords , every 3 months !
And, it is obvious that millions of such " devices " just cannot be manufactured and
installed , all over the country ( especially , in the far flung rural areas ),
within 3 months
But , as Shri Modiji pointed out , given that Indians
have some 1033 million mobile phones ( of which
, approx 240 million are Smart phones ), switching
over to Mobile
Wallets , is the only quick solution to going " Cash Less
"
No wonder , in the past 20 days ( since demonetization
announcement ) , Paytm has added 8 million new users
to its base of 150 million !
In a TV interview a few days back , Vijay Shekhar Sharma ( CEO - Paytm ) said :
" We have advanced our target of reaching 500
million users , from 2020 to 2018 "
And considering that it will take another 5 years for
those 750
million FEATURE PHONES , to get replaced with SMART PHONES , he is in a
tearing hurry to make Paytm app available , even on those feature phones - by
calling a toll free number or by sending a text message !
And , in this rush ( to DIGITAL
GOLD ? ) , he is not alone
Hardly a day passes without some bank or some Start Up
, launching a Mobile Wallet !
Dear
Shri Amitabh Kant :
There is no doubt , you will encourage PRIVATE SECTOR
players to launch Mobile Wallet apps
But you have this opportunity to SIMPLIFY
the use of Mobile
Wallet Apps - the use , which appears " daunting " to rural
folks
Here is how :
mobile app ,
linked to Jan Dhan A/c and to Aadhar Biometric verification of the user )
* Citizen can
download M-Rup ( whether on Smart phone
or on feature phone ) ,from
Google App store
* M-Rup can be activated only after user enters his
Jan Dhan A/c number / his Aadhar Card
number and
his Mobile number , in the App
* At the time of
" Activation ", let the M-Rup
wallet get filled up with Rs 100 ( as a freebie )
* This initial
loading of M-Rup with Rs 100, to happen,
even if the user has no Jan Dhan a/c
* This initial
loading will enable the users to " experiment " transferring or receiving
digital
money ( even between
friends , none of whom have Jan Dhan accounts !). Make it FUN !
I am sure , you will say :
" How does this make M-Rup
any DIFFERENT from any other Mobile Wallet app ?
Where is
that SIMLIFICATION of use ? "
Dear
Shri Amitabh :
Like you ( and of course , Shri Modiji ) , I have a
great faith in the ability of Indian software engineers ( local or NRI ) to
come up with revolutionary solutions / innovations !
Just ask Sundar Pichai
, Sam Pitroda , Satya
Nadela , Sachin Katti , Pranav Mistry , Sanjay Sarma ,
Nandan Nilekani etc , if they will help
implement the following :
* Buyer buys something worth Rs 100 from a shopkeeper
* Buyer and the
Seller , look into their own mobile-cameras ( of smart phones
loaded with M-Rup ) for biometric Aadhar identification
/ linked to Jan Dhan a/c
* Seller speaks in his mobile : " Muze Sau Rupiah dedo "
* Buyer speaks in his mobile : " Inko Sau Rupiah dedo "
* Message
flashes in the mobile screen of Seller : " Tumhare
account-me Sau Rupiah
Jamah ho gaya / GST bhi kaat ke Sarkar-ko bhej
diya "
* Message
flashes in the mobile screen of Buyer : " Tumhare
account-se , Sau Rupiah inko
Bhej
Diya . Abhi balance me teen sau sath rupiah bacha hai
"
I request all concerned , not to insult our engineers /
scientists / geeks , by doubting if such SIMPLIFICATION ( based on day to day spoken
language ) is possible
Doubting Thomas may want to look up ... PILOT
{ http://www.waverlylabs.com/ }
This is the only way rural India can bypass the
Jurassic Age of Plastic Cards to usher into a CASH-LESS society !
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 Nov 2016
www.hemenparekh.in / blogs
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