Reams have been written about UIDAI and I have heard even some clout bearing corporate honchos have offered unpaid “voluntary” services in addition to a bunch of the ivy league desis to make UIDAI a success- what else can a sarkari startup expect in India--- “combo techment” –a hybrid of technology and management plus Sarkari power ? Kudos to Nandan for his clarion call to the corporate biradari and surprisingly the tribe has responded wholeheartedly for the poor and un(der) banked in India.
What keeps me intriguing, other than the hyped hope of our garib janta and power it wields within policy echelons is: Will UIDAI be a game changer across the financial inclusion landscape in India? -- A tougher one , but if one goes by the UIDAI's own document From Exclusion to Inclusion with Micropayments , it seems UIDAI is planning to ride over at least two other big technologies in India, one is mobile telephony and second one is National Payments corporation of India (NPCI) – the national payment switch( in making). Suddenly this seems to be simple - Bank led model will prevail where mobile and biometric smart card technologies could be a pipe for pumping cash,subsidies,education vouchers and G2P benefits like MGREGA and NPCI will ensure interoperability, on the top of it UIDAI will solve the missing link of identity of all those who are out of national payments grid and thus face identity crisis in this huge country of 1.2 billion plus mankind. All this to enable safe, secure and omnipresent infrastructure of financial inclusion.
I don’t know what could be an appropriate answer to this, nothing stops me from dreaming high, but I am also well versed with some realities of mera gaon mera desh, where hard and soft infrastructure is still a challenge; It seems redundant to say it again but hurdles in micro banking still exist and just UIDAI may not be enough to hit the bulls eye. To make this a reality there is huge interdependence on sarkari tantra (Government machinery) , of which delays and red tapism are trusted hallmarks . This can damp passions and kill hope of our “garib as well as high end Volunteer junta”—I sincerely hope I am proved wrong in my skepticism.
I keenly look for your comments on this.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Invitation
Dear Champions of Financial Inclusion,
Greetings from FINO Fintech Foundation!
We would like to extend an invitation to you / your esteemed organisation to partner with Financial Information Network and Operations – Fintech Foundation(F^3) as one of the champions of financial inclusion (CoFI) and strengthen the coalition of changemakers in financial inclusion space in the Asia.
It would be team FINO's privilege to brief you about F^3 and then about CoFI.F^3 is a section 25 not for profit company which acts as a business correspondent on behalf of banks and other financial institutions and enables financial inclusion to millions of poor, unbanked and under-banked people across nooks and corners of India by employing biometric smart card technology with human face.
Over the past three years team FINO has grown at a blistering pace, touching ten million plus customers nationwide across 182 districts in 21 states in India . Our network of bandhus (agents) throughout the country has grown to the extent that we now process two million transactions a month. F^3 is currently involved in a big way in several nation building projects such as NREGA, SSP and RSBY. Through our involvement we have managed to gain unrivaled penetration into the rural market and have acquired an active customer base in previously underserved urban and rural areas. Our network of associates is backed by sound technology which is based on biometric cards and hand held devices used by the local representatives. This new paradigm in banking, anchored around door step service and biometric validation has helped these customers slowly to transit from savings to other products and services across the spectrum of financial inclusion. What brings us greater joy is the realization that this is only the beginning and needs to be strengthened by a knowledge creation and sharing network of multi stakeholders. This realization has incubated a network called Champions of Financial Inclusion.
Champions of Financial Inclusion (CoFI) is a flexible coalition of multistakeholders from various sections of the civil society ,Business community and state actors to make complete financial inclusion a reality and empower poor to mitigate risks which arise chiefly out of poverty. Considering the expertise of CoFI one possible way which we think we could move together is through knowledge generation and knowledge sharing in order to make decision making easier in public and private domains particularly for organizations engaged for financial inclusion in the developing world.
We propose our interactions through multiple channels
• web based resources like fino-cofi blog, Friends of FINO group on facebook etc ,
• Joint research studies and publications,
• FINO Conferences, Brainstorming sessions etc.
Once again team CoFI extend a warm invitation to you/your organisation and look forward for your suggestions and views to address the mutual challenge of financial exclusion in socio economic space.
- FINO Fintech Foundation,India.
http://www.fino.co.in/
Please feel free to contact Mr. Jatinder Handoo regarding any related piece of information at
+91-9769-012016
(022)4161-3466
E- Mail :finocofi@gmail.com
Greetings from FINO Fintech Foundation!
We would like to extend an invitation to you / your esteemed organisation to partner with Financial Information Network and Operations – Fintech Foundation(F^3) as one of the champions of financial inclusion (CoFI) and strengthen the coalition of changemakers in financial inclusion space in the Asia.
It would be team FINO's privilege to brief you about F^3 and then about CoFI.F^3 is a section 25 not for profit company which acts as a business correspondent on behalf of banks and other financial institutions and enables financial inclusion to millions of poor, unbanked and under-banked people across nooks and corners of India by employing biometric smart card technology with human face.
Over the past three years team FINO has grown at a blistering pace, touching ten million plus customers nationwide across 182 districts in 21 states in India . Our network of bandhus (agents) throughout the country has grown to the extent that we now process two million transactions a month. F^3 is currently involved in a big way in several nation building projects such as NREGA, SSP and RSBY. Through our involvement we have managed to gain unrivaled penetration into the rural market and have acquired an active customer base in previously underserved urban and rural areas. Our network of associates is backed by sound technology which is based on biometric cards and hand held devices used by the local representatives. This new paradigm in banking, anchored around door step service and biometric validation has helped these customers slowly to transit from savings to other products and services across the spectrum of financial inclusion. What brings us greater joy is the realization that this is only the beginning and needs to be strengthened by a knowledge creation and sharing network of multi stakeholders. This realization has incubated a network called Champions of Financial Inclusion.
Champions of Financial Inclusion (CoFI) is a flexible coalition of multistakeholders from various sections of the civil society ,Business community and state actors to make complete financial inclusion a reality and empower poor to mitigate risks which arise chiefly out of poverty. Considering the expertise of CoFI one possible way which we think we could move together is through knowledge generation and knowledge sharing in order to make decision making easier in public and private domains particularly for organizations engaged for financial inclusion in the developing world.
We propose our interactions through multiple channels
• web based resources like fino-cofi blog, Friends of FINO group on facebook etc ,
• Joint research studies and publications,
• FINO Conferences, Brainstorming sessions etc.
Once again team CoFI extend a warm invitation to you/your organisation and look forward for your suggestions and views to address the mutual challenge of financial exclusion in socio economic space.
- FINO Fintech Foundation,India.
http://www.fino.co.in/
Please feel free to contact Mr. Jatinder Handoo regarding any related piece of information at
+91-9769-012016
(022)4161-3466
E- Mail :finocofi@gmail.com
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