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."

Comments

Poverty

[TubeSteak]

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.

Re:Poverty

[Anonymous Coward]

The more benevolent, stable, governments will, but the last thing that the kleptocracies and dictators want is upward mobility for their people. It might give them an actual voice in their government. Still, this is good knews for the poor in many countries.

Re:Poverty

[homer_s]

Last I checked India was still in the caste system

Yep, we are all "in" the caste system here. Everyday, when I wake up my grandfather asks me if I've been "in" the caste system. On most days I do and I can answer honestly. But on some days, I'm late to the office and I have to lie to my grandfather. Of course, my office has its own caste system so I make up during the day.

Does it make you feel better about yourself when you open your mouth to blab about stuff that you have no clue about? Let me guess, you:

• Saw a 30 min documentary about India
• Read an article about India in 'Pickle connosueir monthly'.
• Spoke to an Indian person while buying a sandwich at Subway.
• Spent 15 days in India.

And you thought that that qualifies you to speak about a complex social problem that has existed for 1000s of years.

Re:Poverty

[TheRaven64]

Part of the problem, I'm told, is the way in which they abolished it. They took the affirmative action idea to extremes and instituted caste quotas for various professions. The main effect of this was to create a large, visible, set of people from the lower castes who conformed to stereotypes - insufficiently educated to perform their jobs - and cause resentment amongst the people from the other casts who were displaced in favour of someone who wasn't qualified. Unfortunately, a caste system isn't something you can abolish quickly.

Re:Poverty

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, an American. Of course, America has no caste system as everyone treats everyone else as an equal all the time.

Re:Super security

[Lonedar]

Well, that kinda makes sense. There shouldn't be a way of obtaining the card information short of reading it off the actual credit card.

Re:Super security

[MrNaz]

Of course it makes sense. You get your card. The number is on it. Bank staff shouldn't be able to even access it, unless you give it to them.

Re:Duh...

[amccaf1]

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.

Exactly, which is why statements such as "the second largest number of cellphone users (after China)" are mostly useless at conveying information.

Tell us what the number of cellphones per capita is and in comparison to the rest of the world. Then you'll be telling us something useful...

Re:Food, water, shelter not necessary. Nokia 6220!

[Anonymous Coward]

It does not make sense to you, because you are thinking of progress only in traditional way.

India does not work that way. It is a chaotic system, with a lot of entropy, and has lot of redundancy built in. Normally, you would expect a country/society/country to move bottom to top. i.e. improve life in terms of health, economy and education, then move on to develop better means to accelerate the progress. But it has not work in India. There are lots of social, economical, religious factions and factors why India can not operate that way. It is a country of conflicting priorities.

The result is that we have successful space programs, successful telecommunication infrastructure while still a lot people die of hunger. But somehow, we have still managed to get better - though not in very rapid/efficient way. There are less % of people below poverty line (even if you do not believe government numbers), life expectancy has improved. At the same time, villages are breaking up and cities are clogged.

So, its erratic, and it does not make sense. But we still have just launched our moon mission. Go figure.

Re:Food, water, shelter not necessary. Nokia 6220!

[stevejsmith]

Well then it's a good thing we have people like you who can tell poor Indians that they're too stupid to make their own decisions.

Somehow, I think that the person whose life is on the line if they don't spend their money on the right things is probably more qualified than you when it comes to knowing what decisions they have to make to keep them alive.

Re:Food, water, shelter not necessary. Nokia 6220!

[stevejsmith]

An "irresponsible lender" who makes loans nobody can pay back isn't really doing himself any favors, you know.