Zero rating of financial applications like wallets and internet banking a must

While the government is trying to encourage e-cash and cashless payments progress has been limited.

Instead of letting zero rating of facebook where people waste their time, it would be better if government allows zero rating of the financial applications like wallets and internet banking. These applications do not take large amounts of bandwidth and should be subsidized. Anyone with a valid sim card and 2g/3g/4g capable mobile phone should be able to use the wallets without any data charges just like they are able to dial emergency numbers without any balance.

Even though India has seen adoption of mobile telephony in a big way poor people have been left in the lurch. Tele-density in the rural places is still to cross the midway mark.

While there are 950 million active mobile connections many people use dual sim and are double counted. Number of unique mobile users is just 650 million. Children below 12-13 years rarely are given mobile phones for personal use. This means more than 200-300 million adults cannot afford a mobile connection.

UPA-II had toyed with a scheme of giving people basic mobile handsets with minimum monthly recharges. The election code of conduct came into being and the scheme could not be implemented. With a change of government the scheme has not seen the light of the day.

It is predicted that by 2020 there will be 100 crore aadhaar numbers, 100 crore JanDhan Accounts and 100 crore mobile users. Payment banks would want their wallet applications to be linked to these accounts and competition will drive down costs. This potent combination of enablers will lead to a revolution in digital payments.

Hence to enable payments by the poorest of the poor zero rating of financial applications should be considered. In fact the government need not give any subsidy as the banks, wallet companies/payment banks and/or telecom operators would be more than willing to pick up the tab.