Cash or Digital Cache

Every day we see many articles on the latest important subject in the lives of Indian people. What they call as De-Monetisation(whatever that means). Too many buzz words around it. Many people reacted as if they were stuck by the Amygdala hijack and started to panic. Some people say that what started as an initiative to curb black money, now the goal post has shifted to being a Cashless society. And there are many theories about how cash will be important, and how long will it take for the authorities to print the currencies. How deficient will it be for livelihood and therefore how we might be proceeding towards the doomsday?!

While the authorities are relentlessly promoting online transactions.

Well, point noted. And I am not here to debate whether the execution is appropriate or not. For the time being, let us accept the current situation and take a positive outlook. Agreed that the physical currency printing will have its lead times and the logistics around it. In my opinion, the authorities are not shifting the goal post to a cashless society. They are making people aware of going the digital way. And if not all, even if some people do adopt and change their transactional processes, to that extent the demand for physical currency would reduce, while the authorities get ready with the new currency notes. Another question – why Rs.2000? This is also strategic perhaps. They can do with a big value for less number of notes. Just for logistical reasons.

Having said that, how can the future be shaped? The naysayers and the doomsayers have been saying that middle class is largely affected and the poor in rural areas is affected big time. And there’s no recourse.

Let’s admit, this is the era of technology. Solar panels and LED lights have already started illuminating the villages largely. Mobile penetration and growth is phenomenal. Make the best use of the system. We have already seen a surge in digital wallets and online transactions increasing tremendously in the last 2-3 weeks. The current situation should pave way for a new age economy and India.

Can we have rural friendly digital transactions being evolved and developed? A new set of ecosystem could develop in the coming months. For example – can we have a very simplistic point of sale device which would accept payment based on finger print? One need not remember a security code. Your finger print could take care of that. The amount should get automatically get deducted from the corresponding Bank Account or credit card or any other medium. Keep it simple for the end user but supported with heavy backend to take care of all the security requirements linked with Aadhar, PAN or any other mandated gateways. Authentication could have a combination of picture of the end consumer, finger print and if required any other biometric including iris scanning. All done in a single cost effective POS device. The consumer will be agnostic of all the technology behind the transaction.

Now mobile companies have started getting Banking licenses. The mobile companies should not restrict themselves only to mobile wallets. They could offer path breaking banking experience for people. Especially rural people. Other banks could tie up with some mobile operators. With this combo, any person opening an account could be given a start up kit like cheque book, debit card etc. Also should give them a mobile phone with pre-loaded Banking App of the particular bank with the consumers credentials and biometric authentications. The App should be simple enough for the user for transaction purposes. Like a mobile game – the currency notes in their respective denominations could be visibly presented. Seeing is believing. If a person wants to transfer money to another person – they should choose the person’s name (with picture displayed) so it is easy for the rural person to pick the recipient. The account details of the receipient is all taken care automatically by the system (linked with Aadhar etc etc). And he shouldn’t be bothered whether it is an IMPS transaction or NEFT or RTGS. All to be taken care by the system. The transaction should be simple enough for the person to drag the digital currency note from his account and pasting it to the other person’s pictorial account and duly authenticated by finger print on the mobile phone. Bingo, the transaction is done!

Easier said than done. I am sure with the advent of technologies in banking, mobile communications, cost effective mobile devices, technologically advanced App developers, superior, simple and effective Multilingual User Interface, Risk mitigation systems, Security enhancement facilities including protection from data hacking, thefts etc and backed by social security & government support, the day is not far.

Afterall, we are a society with more number of mobile phones than toothbrushes!