This is really interesting – State Bank of India has announced that it will soon offer no-frills bank account for needy – which will be used only through mobile phone.
According to this article in telegraph, this project is only for people who earn less than 5000 rupees a month and own a mobile phone (but don’t have a bank account)
The best part is that, you don’t need to go to a bank to open this account – Just approach your nearest grocery store or a phone recharge store, fill up the form and your account will be operational soon.
The Grocer (who will server as business correspondent) will then help customer to do everything from depositing cash, withdrawal, checking account balance through customers mobile phone.
Eko is a national-level business correspondent, which the SBI has enrolled for its financial inclusion project.
“The biggest use of the phone for the customer is for remittance or sending money home — from say Delhi to his village in Jharkhand — without taking the trouble of visiting a bank branch or writing cheques and getting demand drafts made,”
The SBI plans to hire at least 40,000 business correspondents over the next few years. At present, the SBI has tied up with 10 national-level business correspondent organizations. [source]
I think this is what India really needs !