A bank-like network for rural India
Bharat Money Stores, launched in 2017 by Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd, a unit of IndusInd, helps small kiranas in villages provide banking services to communities underserved by rural banks, and allow transactions such as cash deposit and withdrawals, utility bill payments, etc.
Good morning!
India has 43 registered gramin banks that operate 21,864 branches across the country, as per the Department of Financial Services. But rural areas continue to remain underserved.
Opening more and more bank branches isn’t the solution — there has to be an infusion of existing infrastructure with technology that can enable banking.
This is the problem statement Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd, (BFIL), owned by IndusInd Bank, and its Bharat Money Stores initiative is solving.
Bharat Money Stores act as one-stop banking and financial services hubs that help people in rural areas access banking services.
These small merchant and kirana shops use state-of-the-art technology to convert small businesses into banking outlets, providing services such as bank account opening, cash withdrawals and deposits, fixed and recurring deposits opening, utility bill payments, mobile and DTH recharges, money transfers, and loans.
The transactions conducted by Bharat Money Stores are enabled by IndusInd’s proprietary software, APIs, and product suites. The front-end applications used by merchants were built in-house by BFIL, and use biometric technology to verify and authenticate transactions.
To date, BFIL has around 65,000 partner merchants across 10 states, including Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, and Jharkhand, covering 27,500 villages so far.
The financial enterprise has set its sights on opening over three lakh Bharat Money Stores across 1.80 lakh villages in the next two years.
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News & Updates
- Reliance Industries and Google have announced the JioPhone Next, an India-first 4G smartphone that promises to be the world's most affordable such device. The smartphone will go on sale on September 10 and comes with a voice assistant, smart camera with AR filters, and more.
- At RIL's 44th AGM, Mukesh Ambani revealed that since JioMart's launch, it has digitised over three lakh small merchants and shopkeepers across 150 cities in India. He said Kirana orders have seen a growth of 3X, and order frequency has doubled on the platform.
- Air cargo firm SpiceXpress, along with Delhivery, will build drone delivery capability in India, and the pilot project is expected to start in the next three-four months. Both the entities have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect.
- Paytm has extended the deadline for shareholders, employees, and former employees to submit their documents by June 30 if they wish to sell their shares in the planned initial public offering (IPO) of the company.
- Twitter said it has added Razorpay as an option to its 'Tip Jar' feature, in a bid to make it easier for Indians to send and receive cash gifts from their followers or users who like their content.
Before you go, stay inspired with…
“As rightly said by Dr Amartya Sen, poverty must be seen as deprivation of basic capabilities rather than merely as lowness of income. To achieve overall economic development, financial inclusion is a necessary step towards inclusive growth.”
— Ritesh Chatterjee, Chief Distribution Officer and Head of Bharat Money Stores
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