The mobile boon for rural India

I run a ‘startup’ called StartaSIP.com — It helps people invest in mutual funds via small monthly investments deducted automaticaly from their account.

Everyday, we get queries from far flung areas in India who want to invest anywhere between Rs 1000 to 5000 per month.

They don’t know how Mutual Funds exactly work but have heard of SIPs and want to start so that their money grows better.

Today, a gentleman called up from a village called Gunasvel in the Surat district of Gujarat.

He has been investing Rs 3000 per month in Recurring Deposits for the last few years which he converts into FDs at the end of every year.

He wants to change to SIPs now because it will now take “9.5 years to double his money in FDs instead of 7.5 years”

He wants to move to SIPs in balanced funds so that he gets better returns between 9 to 12 % so that his money can double in about 6 years time.

He has no goals at the moment but is clear that his SIPs will continue till he can afford to save his money and will only start withdrawing after “his initial investment has doubled”

I enjoy these conversations because they provide interesting insights on why and how people want to invest their money and what they want.

Now here is where it gets interesting.

For someone of his background who is based in a remote village in India and runs a shop (and I don’t mean it in a negative or disparaging way at all) he is pretty aware of how mutual funds work and what he wants to do.

He is also aware that he needs advice and is also willing to pay for it 
( A nominal amount ofcourse and nothing that will get a SEBI registered investment advisor excited ;)

And unlike a lot of urban Indians who are now used to 24x7 internet connectivity as a utility, his village does not have broadband internet facilities.

His online window to the world is his mobile phone and he uses the hotspot to connect to his laptop — through which he probably found us through google and called us via a Whatsapp call to find out if we could do a video KYC for him ( Since Reliance MF is offering to do it and his village post office does not speed post or a courier service to send physical documents )

I asked him if he has a cheque with his name printed on it. His reply left me a bit stunned — “Am not sure. It’s been a while since I used my cheque becuase I get most of my work done via mobile banking !!”

Its amazing to discover how mobile internet is empowering people with information and knowledge in remote corners and driving change.