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Where there is a will, there is a way. That is how the Fintech industry is making its route in the bumpy roads of rural India. Right from demonetization, India realized a need to adapt to technology and use digital payments. While the whole country was walking the digitalization lane, rural India remained in the backseat.
However, in the pandemic, the rural sector needed to pace up too. With the right resources and efforts by different fintech companies, the rural population has also become versed in using digital modes of payments and banking. Though, it was not a cakewalk.
Rise of digital transactions in lockdown
When the world was forced to shut down in the four walls, and physical transactions were a threat to humankind, digital transactions increased, and rural India was on its way to shake hands with technology. With many efforts by the fintech companies and the proper support by the government, micro-ATMs, and other modes of transactions like UPI were introduced.
As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the digital transactions in India were recorded at 4,371 crores in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, the data was 3,412 crore. Among many other efficient efforts by the government to work on financial inclusion, the Jan Dhan Yojana stands tallest.
Role of fintech companies in making rural population tech-friendly
The biggest problem in rural India was digital literacy and trust. To cater to these issues, the fintech companies came on board and helped educate the population and provide them with safe and secure banking facilities. In this attempt, some companies also installed micro-ATMs and mobile vans in the rural areas for assistance in simple day-to-day activities like paying mobile bills, regular transactions through UPI, net banking, etc.
Rise of Micro ATM
Micro ATMs (MATM) is a cost-effective banking solution compared to conventional ATM operations. It has also become an essential part of rural households as it is effortless to use. It was reported that with the help of micro-ATM, online transactions have increased up to 200% in the pandemic era.
As per a recent RBI report, banks set up 4.94 lakh micro-ATMs by the end of August 2021, which was around 60.9% more than the previous year.
Making Rural India digitally savvy with budget 2022
With the advancements coming our way, we cannot afford to sit back and not move forward. Therefore, to take rural India on the road to digitalization, fintech companies with the government’s support are putting their best foot forward. While doing that, they have been able to tap the 62% of Indians that live in rural areas and have been untouched by the benefits of technology in the banking sector.
Also, as shared in Budget 2022, the government will be focusing more on digital education and implementation across the nation. In the budget, the finance minister also announced that the government would be focusing on enhancing FinTech education by launching new courses and universities at GIFT City.