Building for Bharat: Accessibility, awareness, and reliable products hold the key

Fintech revolution, once confined to metropolitan areas, has now expanded its reach to include semi-urban and rural regions. But what is the right way to build for ‘Bharat’? 

Accessibility, awareness, reliable products, and streamlining user experience are the crucial facets of building for Bharat, concurred experts at a panel discussion at TechSparks 2023, held recently in New Delhi.

Paritosh G, Co-founder of Liquide, said Bharat lies in Tier II and III cities, particularly among salaried and non-salaried individuals. “These can be the individuals who lack access to a formal financial support system," he said.

Vishal Gupta, CEO of PhonePeInsurance Broking Service, believes there’s no distinction between Bharat and India. He said, “If you're building for scale, you need to focus on the lowest denominator. However, if you're aiming for a solution for the lowest common denominator, build a simple, trustworthy, and reliable product.”

“By delivering for that segment, it becomes equally applicable for everyone. When designing or building a solution, consider what it takes to reach the common man, as their behaviour is key,” he added. 

Awareness and education

Amit Pandey, VP of the Indian Venture & Alternate Capital Association, believes Bharat needs a technology revolution in the fintech space.

“Bharat is at the cusp of technology due to digital penetration, but it needs awareness and accessibility. Once we have that, we'll delve into discussions on how platforms will help leverage the underserved, providing more access to technology in Tier II and III markets," he said.

Educating users on financial services is another crucial aspect, and Gupta believes layering the complexities and keeping the steps jargon-free is the way to go about it.

“Over time, what we are aiming to do is ride on the basics of digitisation. One needs to be payment-ready, and that is where UPI has played a huge role. With 500 million registered users and a 40 million merchant base, there's a clear railroad paved out, and the idea is to use these railroads to increase awareness and offer what is right for them,” said Gupta.

Paritosh believes the approach must involve simplifying insights into charts, thus making the information user-friendly.  

“By presenting information pictorially, users can see what's happening with a particular company or sector. Many previous products in this space were data-driven, bombarding users with numbers that they had to make sense of,” he said.

“However, if you step away from the jargon and numbers, it's essentially pattern recognition. Human beings are naturally good at recognising patterns.”

Evolution of fintech system

The evolution of the fintech ecosystem in India has been significant, and strongly backed by the government, said Pandey.

“Looking at the macros, if we take a step back and observe the macro side of things, the evolution of the fintech ecosystem in India has been significant, strongly backed by the government. In 2008, NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) was launched, followed by Aadhar and UPI. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed digital adoption, coinciding with the smartphone revolution,” he elaborated.

RuPay has played a crucial role in pushing financial inclusion, capturing 60% of the overall market, and this kind of lay of the land has enabled the entire ecosystem, Pandey added.

(This story was updated to correct a typo.)