[vc_row full_height="yes" equal_height="yes" content_placement="middle" text_align="center" type="image" enable_parallax="false" parallax_speed="0.4" padding_top="110" padding_bottom="0" bg_image="39287"][vc_column][kleo_gap size="100px"][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width="1/6"][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner el_class="uppercase" width="2/3"][vc_column_text text_color="#ffffff" font_size="48px" letter_spacing="" el_class="title_blog"]
<h2 style="text-align: center; text-transform:uppercase">Can hunger for growth lead to early adoption of digital payment solutions?</h2>
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width="1/6"][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][kleo_gap size="130px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row equal_height="yes" content_placement="middle" type="color" bg_color="#ffffff" padding_top="10" padding_bottom="0"][vc_column width="1/2"][/vc_column][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_row_inner equal_height="yes" content_placement="middle"][vc_column_inner width="5/12" css=".vc_custom_1504265033147{padding-right: 0px !important;}"][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width="1/3" css=".vc_custom_1504265063058{padding-left: 0px !important;}"][vc_column_text letter_spacing=""][addtoany][/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width="1/4" css=".vc_custom_1504265782417{padding-right: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}"][kleo_button title="Print this page" href="https://cashlesscatalyst.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Gen-Next_Chit_Funds_From_Dusty_Dab_as_to_Digital_Khaatas.pdf" target="_blank" style="custom" position="left" size="lg" special="no" border="no" icon="print" font_size="16px" letter_spacing="" el_class="grey-icon" custom_text="#d11e3c"][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type="image" bg_image="7841"][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text text_color="#383b3b" font_size="16px" letter_spacing=""]<p>Praveen Agarwal, a 35-year-old merchant, lives and works in the Sodala neighborhood of Jaipur. Together with his brother, he runs a retail shop that sells bags. Neither uses Paytm, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), PhonePe, Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) or other popular means of digital payments. Praveen tells us that he had installed Paytm about a year ago on his phone but never had the urge to use it. However, after running a shop for ten years, he invested in a mobile point of sale (mPoS) machine to lure new customers.</p>
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type="image" bg_position_horizontal="center" enable_parallax="false" parallax_speed="0.4" padding_top="100" padding_bottom="100" el_class="uppercase" bg_image="24280"][vc_column][vc_row_inner content_placement="middle"][vc_column_inner][vc_single_image image="24271" alignment="center"][vc_custom_heading text="CHIT FUNDS FOR COMMUNITY SAVING AND BORROWING" font_container="tag:h2|font_size:36px|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff|line_height:46px" google_fonts="font_family:Roboto%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal" letter_spacing="" css=".vc_custom_1531313255374{margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type="image" bg_image="7841"][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text text_color="#383b3b" font_size="16px" letter_spacing=""]Having been a part of a few small chit funds* herself, Farida Ben started her own chit fund with a group of twenty members, and monthly installments of Rs. 100. She collects these installments diligently and stores the cash in an old dabba (box) in her house. In the middle of our conversation, she disappears for a few minutes and returns with a dusty old register. She flips the pages to show us the manual entries she has made pertaining to the transactions in the six chit funds she has organized so far. When asked what her primary motivation for starting the chit funds was, she explains that she believes it is a brilliant way to inculcate a habit of money-handling and saving in the community.

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<p style="text-align: left;"><em>*Chit funds are a savings-cum-borrowing scheme prevalent in India that are based on community trust. Members from a community come together and make monthly deposits for a period of months equal to the number of members. Every month, a reverse auction is held wherein the member with the lowest bid - and hence, in dire need of the money wins. The remaining amount is distributed among all the members. Each member can only win a bid once in the duration of the chit fund.</em></p>

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type="image"][vc_column][vc_single_image image="24272" alignment="center"][vc_custom_heading text="WHAT’S THE HOOK TO ADOPT DIGITAL PAYMENT SOLUTIONS?" font_container="tag:h2|font_size:36px|text_align:center|color:%23000000|line_height:46px" google_fonts="font_family:Roboto%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal" letter_spacing="" css=".vc_custom_1542294061384{margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][vc_row_inner equal_height="yes" content_placement="middle"][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text text_color="#383b3b" font_size="16px" letter_spacing=""]<p>Intrigued by this change in behavior, we asked him about the real triggers behind this decision. Praveen says that he had been running a small shop next to his current shop till three months ago. He and his brother used a large part of their savings to move into a bigger shop on the main road. Now, the shop is noticeable in terms of both its size and location.</p>
<p>Praveen says, “Earlier only one or two customers would want to make payments through a credit or debit card. Today, with this bigger shop, we see about six or seven such customers daily. We don’t want to lose these customers. Each customer is valuable for our business.”</p>
<p>There is no ATM within a one kilometer radius of the shop. Praveen adds, “At times, customers would leave the shop to withdraw money from the closest ATM, and change their minds in the process. At times they would never return. I do not want to lose those customers or let them change their minds. I think a PoS machine is going to help me hook those customers.”</p>
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type="image" bg_position_horizontal="center" enable_parallax="false" parallax_speed="0.4" padding_top="100" padding_bottom="100" el_class="uppercase" bg_image="24281"][vc_column][vc_row_inner content_placement="middle"][vc_column_inner][vc_single_image image="24412" alignment="center"][vc_custom_heading text="CATALYST’S ENGAGEMENT" font_container="tag:h2|font_size:36px|text_align:center|color:%23ffffff|line_height:46px" google_fonts="font_family:Roboto%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal" letter_spacing="" css=".vc_custom_1542294454675{margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type="image" bg_image="7841"][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text text_color="#383b3b" font_size="16px" letter_spacing=""]<p>CATALYST has been experimenting with various ‘value additions’ to the PoS/mPoS mechanism to discover a perfect hook for digital payments adoption and access to credit. Field stories such as this tell us that newly opened shops with a larger ambition and bigger appetite for growth can be good use cases for early adoption. However, for shops that have not been able to grow in size over time or where the cost of digital adoption is still high, we need to experiment further to learn, through an iterative process, about value-added services that can lead to faster adoption.</p>
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type="image"][vc_column][vc_row_inner content_placement="middle"][vc_column_inner][vc_single_image image="24322" alignment="center"][vc_custom_heading text="OPENING DOORS TO DIGITAL PAYMENTS" font_container="tag:h2|font_size:36px|text_align:center|color:%23000000|line_height:46px" google_fonts="font_family:Roboto%20Condensed%3A300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal" letter_spacing="" css=".vc_custom_1531326097605{margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}"][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text text_color="#383b3b" font_size="16px" letter_spacing=""]Are Anam and Anas going to use BHIM for purposes other than undertaking transactions on Kyepot? “Certainly!” - is the unanimous reply - “It is so convenient!”. They have just begun their exploration of the UPI world but are already enthusiastic about using it to make payments for healthcare services, payments at petrol pumps and even to pay their college fees. They are confident about propelling a similar adoption of digital payments among their peers.

Farida Ben looks on proudly. She has clearly faced her fair share of hurdles - with stern opposition from her family in the beginning for organizing the chit funds in her home. But she is not one for excuses. She believes in action.

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