Part-II: Reaching Half-a-Billion Indians!

Before we continue into the second part of : Reahing Half-a-billion Indians, let me thank

Sandip Maiti (my ex-boss in Jasubhai Digital Media)

Archana Pandey

and Manuscrypt

for their comments and encouragement.

Archana had a very valid point in terms of using mobile platforms; and Manusrypt also has a very interesting and inspiring blog that one can check out!

So, moving back to where we left, the 6 core needs that cut across the major segments are:
Education
Employment
Banking
Health
Travel
Communication

What if we build a one-box that services all these core needs in a customised way for different segments?

For instance, let’s take 2 examples:

1. Targeting one of the most challenging segment: The Daily Wager/Labour Work Force.

2. Targeting Students

Targeting a Daily Wager

A daily wager, needs to find jobs, needs to register in a Rojgar Guarantee Yojna, needs to transfer money to his family back in village, needs a place to keep his earnings , travel back to his village once a year, be prepared for medical emergency and needs to talk to his wife and parents once every week.

So our one-box is a PC that has advanced touch and speech user interface
and allows one to :

register for Rojgar Guarantee Scheme. (Through a unique verification process, that entails thumb print, triggers criminal checks, and referal/introduction)
register in the employment exchange and check your status through
SMS or biometric touch or speech
deposit cash, transfer money to a local post office or let’s say a local western union unit. (I have heard that daily wagers actually keep their earnings with the local jeweller, now that's a huge potential for banks to initiate micro-savings and micro-lending endeavour)
make a call anywhere in the world.

The One-Box gets attached to a Bank at the backend, hence the Bank now has an opportunity to divert hundreds of millions of Rupees worth of unorganised savings to it’s leverage.

What’s more Bank’s can now do Micro-Lending and the person also gets a default life insurance.

One Box is connected to the local Hospital and the person can be treated free and a history is maintained.

One can book train ticket-through an advanced interactive speech and touch interface. One pays with the attached bank account.

Now the daily wager doesn’t need to know English or know how to use a computer. He operates with multi-lingual Speech, and graphical touch interface.
There may be a need for manned assistance in the beginning.
Also the kiosk should be multi-oriented so that at one given time about 2-4 people can use the same.

Source: www.umbrellakiosk.blogspot.com



And the best part is: One-Box helps the daily wager find a job, save, invest and transfer his money. Gives his family a life insurance, helps him talk and travel easily.

If this one Box can be fitted in a mobile phone- with the use of GPS technology the person can be tagged and in a situation of natural disaster or if the person is absconding we will be in a position to identify, track and trace the person.

Now where do we install this One-Box.

We need to tie up with Banks, Local Authorities & Hospitals and the One-Boxes can be installed at any of these locations.

Another way could be to give Free of Cost mobile phone with One Box features to every person who registers at the Rojgar-Guarantee Yojna or is being employed by let’s say a Big Farm Owner.

The mobile phone acts as a smart card and hence Government’s objective of Smart Card enabling is also achieved.

These mobile phones are sponsored by the Government.

Government subsidises the handsets. The vendor (it could be an HP or Google or Microsoft or Nokia) gets the money from Government and immediately installs let’ say 100 million such Kiosks or Handsets.

The training and upkeep is done by NGOs in conjunction with vendors and local authorities.

The vendor maintains and upgrades the installations as per SLA.

So, win-win for all:

1. The end-users gets an opportunity to scale up in life and feel more secured.
2. Government can now tag and register people and track efficacy of it's social programs apart from keeping a tab on crime and can implement control measures more effectively in situations of natural or otherwise disasters
3. The vendors can not only hope to sell 10 times more but also earn through perpetual maintenance contracts and upselling and cross selling of other products.


Looks simple, but is indeed a Herculean task, and we shall know a little bit more in our concluding part this week-end on: Targeting Students, Requirements for fulfilment and we shall also take a look at a diagram from CKP's Bottom of pyramid, and relate it's context with our thoughts. Till then...have a wonderful week ahead!