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Cellphone Banking Helping To Fight Poverty In India
An anonymous reader writes "Technology Review is running an in-depth story about the way cellphone banking is transforming the lives of many poor people in India. By enabling users to manage a legitimate bank account and finance micro-loans, cellphones are a major force of social and economic change. It's perhaps not surprising, given that despite widespread poverty, India has the world's fastest-growing cellphone market and the second largest number of cellphone users (after China). The article mentions one Indian start-up, mChek, that is thriving as a result. There's also an excellent video report."
This mcheck service is super secure. From their FAQ:
Who else will get my Credit Card information?
mChek will NEVER disclose your Credit Card information to anybody, including to you.
(Emphasis mine)
Cell phones are like computers and the internet rolled into one for those poor people in India.
I bet in the next ten years, markets in India and Africa are going to be the hotspot for 3.5/4G wireless internet service through cell handsets. I imagine that their governments will encourage the building of cell infrastructure because they can see how cell access is helping people become upwardly mobile.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
despite widespread poverty, India has the world's fastest-growing cellphone market
I'm guessing that cellphonr technology must be a lot more affordable in India than it is in the U.S.A. Can anyone tell us what cellphone costs are in India, and, if I'm right, why someone can't offer a similar price structure in the United States?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I know the mCheck people and they are doing great work. They face 2 major challenges :
1. Getting more and more mobile operators and banks on board.
2. Keeping their cost low. IIRC, each transaction costs them about Rs. 2-3 which is quite high if you think of transaction size of Rs. 20-30
However, mobile penetration is ever-increasing in India. It is one of fastest growing telecom markets in the world. And I've been told of places in India where there is no electricity but the people have mobile phones. (There is an awesome story about how they charge their batteries, but that for some other time).
So mobile is the way to go not just for for democratization of information but also for economic liberation of the people.
Cheers !!!
Of course China and India have the largest cell phone populations in the world... They have more then 1 third of the worlds population between them.
(Know why more people are using cell phones and not land lines? It's a shit load easier to throw up towers then to run cables. And a shit load easier to guard against people stealing the metal for raw materials.)
Cell phones are great for poor people, especially farmers. They can ring up potential buyers before travelling a day to market. (They might travel south instead of north.)
I've also read that they are used to send money back home for people (from the country side who live) in cities. They buy cell phone credit, then they ring a fellow in the home village and tell him the voucher number, and he types it into his phone and gets the credit, and then gives that amount of money (minus a small fee) to the family.
Innovation comes, so often, from necessity.
I wank in the shower.
... in India, they still have banks!!! They're RICH!!!
last year on Ethiopia.
This is ridiculous. You're arguing that selling people phones so that they can take out more loans when they can't afford to eat or shelter themselves is good for these people. Give me a break. These "microloans" aren't charity. They're good for the lenders, not the poor. The reality is that the phones are just one more expense to pay off, and the interest on the micro-loan is yet another.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
P2P lending will be the way all banking is done in the future. The task of millions of computers automatically distributing tiny amounts of money among themselves seems to require immense amounts of data storage & transaction processing, there's no reason the software can't be done.
I hate to sound cynical, but here's what's really going on.
You see, the poor people of India have been ripped off so many times that the use of gold for savings and financial transactions is deeply embedded into their culture. That drives the central bankers of the world, and especially in India absolutely batshit crazy, because it deprives them of the opportunity to water down peoples money and keep the difference for themselves while saddling the poor with inflation and debt. This wasn't so unbearable as long as India was just some destitute pit-stop. However, now that the economy is industrializing and growing, the mere thought that people might actually get to keep the value of their earnings is causing them to desperately seek any kind of "solution". Micro-loans, cell phone transactions, free college level "economics" courses for everybody in India, massive public relations campaigns, you name it - they are desperate to get India away from gold.
You see, it's not just about money, but control. By using gold, it would force all new investment capital in the economy to come from savers and producers instead of central bankers and their backed governments - that just print it up.
I keep waiting for the Slashdot trolls to come out with their standard response to India stories - "Why are they doing when they cant feed themselves" Incidentally when I worked in Europe I never saw a beggar (guess the dole works). Not so in Toronto and Austin. Austin beggars are passive except on Guadalupe where they can give the pushiest Indian beggar good competition. But the funniest beggar I saw was the one sitting outside the McDonalds in downtown Toronto with a 'Change please' sign. Whenever he had enough change he would go in and get a burger and come back outside (rinse,lather,repeat). So yeah there are people who cant afford to eat in the US and Canada too - thats what happens in capitalist countries and India is capitalist too.
**Life is too short to be serious**
The Reserve Bank of India published Mobile Banking Guidelines earlier this month effectively requiring customers to have a proper bank account before they can use mobile banking. The mobile operators have been blocked. It will be interesting to see how that affects takeup of mobile banking in India.
Check it at http://rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=4524&Mode=0/
There was a Long Now Foundation talk covering the early stages of this story by Iqbal Quadir. (He was the guy who had the idea that the Grameen bank could fund cellphone purchase in small rural areas). Here's their written summary of the talk: Iqbal Quadir, "Technology Empowers the Poorest" (If you poke around on the site you can find the video of it, or listen to the mp3):
The only places in the world you see the need for microloans are in countries where there is too much bank regulation.
Here is what the Index of Economic Freedom says about Indian banking:
India's 28 state-owned banks control about 75 percent of loans and deposits, and 29 private banks and 31 foreign banks make up the rest. The government owns nearly all of the approximately 600 rural and cooperative banks and most other financial institutions. Banks must lend to "priority" borrowers. Foreign ownership of banks and insurance companies is restricted.
That's why there is microlending in India, the banking system is almost totally an inefficient government monopoly.
India is democracy and not meritocracy like Taiwan.
If merit is the criteria, India should never get Independence from British.
Govt must implement Reservations in Temples, Judiciary and in Defense services.
A) 50% of Temple Priests/Supreme Court Judges/Defense Staff must be from OBC communities.
B) 35% Temple Priests/Supreme Court Judges/Defense Staff must be from Dalits and Tribals.
C) Remaining Temple Priests/Supreme Court Judges/Defense Staff must be from other castes.
Otherwise India will disintegrate into 3000+ separate Kingdoms.
Govt must notify every Caste as a separate Religion.
This will abolish Casteism and prevent Conversions in India.
Casteism = Racism aka Socio-economic Collusion in India since 12th Century.
In India parents have been covertly brainwashing their children to coerce other children as per Caste hierarchies since 1500 BC.
Slashdot = Sarcasm
http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/oct/16sd1.htm
Slashdot = Sarcasm
Whenever you come across anybody from India ask him "What is your Caste?"
Slashdot = Sarcasm
85% of population in India do not have any bank accounts. http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/dec/01guest3.htm
Slashdot = Sarcasm
http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/sep/29banks.htm
Slashdot = Sarcasm
How internet can help fixing Casteism in India?