The last year and a half have been challenging for all of us. The flip side is to look at this pandemic through a different lens – the eyes of a farmer and, every individual that resides in the remote areas of our nation. Earlier in 2019-20, while most of us were confined to the comfortable spaces of our homes, many migrant labourers were seen struggling to find their way back home.The ones who did stay back, found it difficult to stay connected to their loved ones and were unable to send them their hard-earned money back home. This is where most Fintech Companies of our country, came into the picture.
By making basic banking services like Cash Withdrawal, Balance Enquiry, Bank Statement, Money Transfer and Online Payments available to the people residing in remote areas; the Fintech Space has revolutionised the way they transact. They were able to eliminate the risk of travelling long distances which, otherwise was a common occurrence in these areas by making these services available at the nearest shops and other establishments. With the Government of India announcing multiple Benefit Schemes for the underprivileged citizens of our country, we have noticed a major increase in the consumption of services like Aadhar Enabled Payment Systems(AePS), Mobile ATMs and Domestic Money Transfer Services (DMT); in order to avail of the sums that they are allocated under these Schemes. With the recent announcement by our Honourable Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modiji, farmers will be disbursed the 9th Instalment under the Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, announced by the Prime Minister in 2019. As most of our farmers are located in remote areas of our country; where internet and banking services access is rare, they are most likely to avail of the same services to withdraw this sum from their bank accounts and send it to their near ones.
In the backdrop of this environment, and understanding the need for reaching out to remote areas of our country; where connectivity is a challenge, we brought to fruition our startup company – PayInc Private Ltd. Many of our farmers and other individuals residing in the remote and often inaccessible parts of our nation took to availing of these basic banking facilities through software developed by PayInc,within 24 hours at minimal cost. Our startup played a huge part in enabling the rural population have access to banking facilities while also making ends meet for shopkeepers from the commissions that they earned on each transaction. This led to a chain reaction, with more businesses enrolling with us and becoming our partners. It is a moment of pride, that our humble beginnings have today spiralled to nearly a total count exceeding 65,000 partner businesses, pan-India. Not only did it help our nation to become strong financially, but it also stirred a sense of entrepreneurship amongst a number of small business owners as they now had a source of additional and stable income, without having to make huge investment commitments, which unfortunately, was a distant dream for them earlier.
In the light of the current COVID safety norms, social distancing being the new normal, Digital Payments have surged in our nation. It is very satisfying for us at PayInc; to note that we were able to understand the need of reaching out in the rural marketplace at an opportune time; thereby doing our bit to facilitate shops in remote areas enable Digital Payments, by offering services like Utility Bill Payments, Mobile Wallet Recharge and Prepaid Cards,etc. With one transaction at a time, it is our endeavour at PayInc to do our bit in creating a cashless economy and Digitising India.