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Cellphone Banking Helping To Fight Poverty In India

Posted by Soulskill on from the will-it-work-here-too? dept.

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."

1 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Re:despite widespread poverty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well India has got so many cellphone users because:

    1. People may be poor but the cellphone compnies arent :) Here are a few mobile operators:

    TATA
    Airtel
    Reliance
    Vodaphone

    and the list goes on. Reliance operates the world's biggest CDMA network. These companies have the financial capability to lay there own fiber network accross India and opera PAN india mobile networks.

    2. Competition: Well, unlike other countries, there is a lot of competition among these mobile operators. They will install a mobile tower in the most remote location of India if they can acquire a few more customers.

    3. Openness : People are used to buying mobile phones and SIM separatelly. Most people will have more than one companies SIM. It's cheap afterall, you can get a new SIM for just around 100 Rs ( 2 dollars ). So open GSM system has helped the mobile network grow a lot.

    4. Culture: Japan is mobile crazy, so is India. Don's ask me why, but almost everyone wants a mobile phone. It's not fashion, it's considered a requrement in India.