An article relating to this blog post on Finextra:
India joins Better Than Cash Alliance
India has joined the UN-based Better Than Cash Alliance as it bids to accelerate the country's migration to electronic payments as part of a more general strategy to boost financial inclusion.
See article
Transparency in the process of government subsidy from allocation to distribution to reach the intended receipient is the foundation for confidence in the government and for even economic growth. There have been several such programmes in India from decades. In
the past the sharp depletion of dollar number as it percolated was close to 50% (educated gues). The attrition was engineered by government agencies and middle men along the supply chain who polished off a significant percentage. There have been cases where receipients
were non existent.
Technology from that perspective is a blessing. While the optimism of covering each of the household under the umbrella of organised banking is well meant. The truth, is the unbanked population feel intimidated to walk into a branch office. So the statistic
to look for will be accounts with no operations. Don't get me wrong. The landscape is not all that bleary. The silver lining is the 'payments bank' and 'small banks' (New banks). This is the tipping point that will draw the unbanked into organised banking
circle. The central bank has clearly emphasised the delivery of banking services on a strong technology platform.
The New banks will drive the economic growth and for once the people in the largest democracy can look forward to transparency. This model if it were to suceed will be good replication for emerging economies that are caught is the wrath of supply chain sharks.