Google Wants To Teach Financial Planning To Indians; To Launch ‘Bharat Saves’ With Jan Dhan Yojana

Google is planning a jump into the lucrative financial products niche by their new initiative: Bharat Saves, which would be a website and an app. Via this new venture, Google wants to teach financial planning to Indians, explain them the benefits of savings and then sell them financial & insurance products.

It seems a perfect example of content marketing, wherein first the consumer or the end use is provided information and knowledge for free about a niche, and then products are sold once the end-user is empowered with knowledge about the same.

Google’s ‘Bharat Saves’ would be aligned with PM Modi’s Jan Dhan Yojana, which calls for greater financial inclusion of all Indians.

Considering that 24 crore bank account have already been opened under Jan Dhan, and more than Rs 40,000 crore deposited under this scheme, Google’s gamble with financial literacy and product selling is aptly timed and co-ordinated.

A Google official has confirmed the development, as he said: “In line with the Prime Minister’s vision to create greater financial inclusion-….various BFSI organisations and industry associations are coming together to launch a digital platform”.

Interestingly, Indian Govt. is also in talks with Apple to align Jan Dhan with Apple Pay to create an eco-system of financial products which can be easily bought. When PM Modi was in US last year, he had conducted talks with Apple officials about the same.

A senior official confirmed this, as he said, “There were some discussions on these issues when the PM met CEOs of top tech giants at the Digital India forum in San Jose, California during his visit to the US..”

Bharat Saves – Perfect Content Marketing Plan By Google

In a standard and perfect content marketing blueprint, the end-user is first given information for free, and then offered products which compliment that information.

Google is doing the same with ‘Bharat Saves’.

In the first leg, ‘Bharat Saves’ will provide high grade information about financial planning, saving and the importance of financial knowledge via several modules, designed for novices and first timers.

In fact, Google will ask the users to take financial literacy tests, based on their newly acquired knowledge, and Indian Govt. would provide them certificates, based on the result of the tests.

Once the tests are over, the second leg of the project will kick-in, wherein Google will provide the users an option to buy financial products like banking and insurance schemes. Considering that this part of the program would be only offered to those who have already passed the financial literacy test, chances of buying one increases substantially.

As per reports, the second leg of the project would be linked with Jan Dhan Yojana, so that the account holder can easily and smoothly purchase financial products.

It is not yet clear as to from where Google will source these products. Either it would be a massive online marketplace where companies like ICICI Bank, Kotak, Bajaj Alliance etc offer their top products; or it can be a collaboration with selected few.

The role of Jan Dhan officials and Indian Govt. is also not clear in the process of selling these products – Will Govt. push for LIC backed products or endorse private financial company’s products as well?

Can ‘Bharat Saves’ unleash a new wave of fin-tech startups and ventures in India? The indicators are positive, for sure.