Re-inventing the last mile connectivity through DaaS

Suresh Kumar, 47, hailing from Khagaria, Bihar, had to commute 28 kilometres and wait in long queues every time he had to withdraw cash or deposit money. His commuting expenses and the whole day spent conducting basic financial transactions often turned out to be expensive and a tiring affair. This is the story of not just Suresh, but millions of people residing in Bharat. So, what really is the problem?

As per a World Bank report, India is one among seven countries where the world’s 1.4 billion adults without access to formal banking reside . There are around 32,000 bank branches in India for 6 lakh villages, which highlights the gap in fulfilling every citizen’s banking and financial requirements. Despite India being a huge market, a major part of it is untapped and lacks access to essential financial services. A few of the most prevalent challenges include the lack of digital skills among stakeholders, infrastructure problems, network hiccups, and low-income users’ inability to pay for the equipment needed to access digital services.

Urban and rural India, though mutually interdependent, have been disparate, especially in terms of digitisation and access to new-age technologies. The urban population, to a great extent, is digitally aware and has access to myriads of facilities and services, such as banking, debit card, credit card, shopping, etc. However, the case for Bharat, the less digital-savvy and tech-shy segment, is different. To bring Bharat up the digital and financial inclusion curve, ample handholding is needed. The government is making efforts and fulfilling its commitment by crediting money to individuals’ accounts. Still, facilitating access to this money has been a huge challenge in rural India. This is where Distribution-as-a-Service (DaaS) steps in.

To integrate Bharat with India, driving digitisation by enabling the DaaS network would play a vital role. The DaaS architecture makes it possible for local retailers to offer a wide range of financial and non-financial services to the general public through the branchless banking model. This is led by retail banking agents and outfitted with point-of-sale terminals and mobile banking.

Remember Suresh? It was only recently that he was introduced to a nearby retail banking agent. Now, with the assistance of this retailer, Suresh can conduct all financial transactions at his neighbourhood Kirana shop, doing away with his need to travel to his bank branch or stand in a queue. This has given him some respite and has made his life easy.

This is what DaaS does. It makes life of all citizens easy and financial services more accessible.

With DaaS, services spanning from banking to e-commerce, digital entertainment and online education to insurance, travel to simple lending options are reaching the unserved and underserved areas of the nation. The goal of DaaS is to democratise services and make the advantages of the contemporary world available to everyone by streamlining high-end technology for consumption at the last mile.

DaaS is filling the gap that exists between conglomerates and rural consumers and helping partners access the last mile market. It enables companies to make their services available to Bharat with the help of API and plug-and-play technology. It ensures that the interiors of the country are no longer left out of the benefits of modern advancement while guaranteeing a steady stream of revenue for local micro-entrepreneurs and service provider partners. The tech-backed service is enabling big enterprises to reach the previously unreachable rural heartlands in the shortest possible time, while making the tech-shy citizens a little financially cognizant, one transaction at a time.

The ‘Retail’ Empowerment

Anand Kumar Bajaj,
Founder, MD & CEO,
PayNearby

India is rising to a $1.17 trillion retail market, and kirana stores alone contribute to more than 10% of India’s GDP. The kirana store has been a vital element of the Indian economy and the social fabric. No one understands the pulse of the local community better than the neighbourhood retailers. With the government promoting the notion of Digital India, these retail establishments are critical to India’s complete digitalisation. However, although retail in India is evolving, retailers are not. By digitising retail outlets and increasing digital adoption at the last mile, the DaaS model aims to achieve retail sashaktikaran (empowerment) – a journey that will aid India’s shift from an assisted service to a self-service one.

They are here to stay

In the era of Amrit Kaal, the path forward is a combination of digitisation, sachetisation, and universalisation of banking and non-banking services. Rural India’s aspirations are the same as those of urban India, and thanks to DaaS, now one can access and consume the same OTT, e-commerce, and education in Bihar’s Khagaria as in Mumbai. From here on, configuring services successfully through the DaaS model will be a crucial step in re-inventing last mile connectivity, bridging the urban-rural divide, and bringing Bharat to par with India.

(This article is authored by Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, of PayNearby)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ET Edge Insights, its management, or its members

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