Samit Ghosh is the founder and managing director of Ujjivan Financial Services Limited. He was accompanied by Subir Roy, a writer. We have large commercial banks on one hand and microservices banks on the other hand. They are blooming slowly amongst the bigger financial sectors. Ujjivan is one such microservice bank that provides loans ranging from 2k to lakhs and more. Importantly, to those who are in real need of it. They provide small loans which makes it financially viable and they do it without security.
Microservice bank is no new concept and exists for a long time in history. What comes to mind is Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi entrepreneur. So no surprises when we say that the north-eastern part leads ahead of India when it comes to microservice banks. These banks mainly serve the poor and rural areas. Vijay Mahajan is another social entrepreneur who rightly said that if we treat the poor with respect, they keep up to it. i.e, they remain debted. The Reserve Bank of India introduced licensing of banks and eight out of ten turns out to be microservice financial sectors. That is the pace of growth of these banks. A major challenge was the Aadhar card. The poor didn’t have Aadhar numbers nor were they aware of it.
This is where Technology plays a vital role. Technology is been evolving greatly and has made lives easier, faster and more sophisticated. There are applications which have assisted the poor and illiterate people right from registering to being self-sufficient. Ujjivan makes the entire borrowing process easier and hassle-free by providing short-term loan services. It acts independently of the market which stands out apart from the large commercial banks.
Ujjivan’s primary goals include:
1. Use of legit technology and building applications to improve and modernise the banking experience.
2. Helping the rural and poor sections of society.
3. Help people save money outside banking sectors.
4. Technology. Digitalization. Automation
They spoke about how the payment banks lack behind in the banking sectors. The main reason being, viability. It majorly consists of start-ups which are poorly funded and cannot invest assets of high return.
The talk ended on a high note when the director mentioned about his concern about the poor who save money and keep it under the pillow for the health of the family and education of the child and that Ujjivan will take care of these aspects as well in the near future which deserved an applause.
About the Author: Puja believes that words have power and if you believe that your words will make a difference, they will. She is enthusiastic about poetry, mythology, and fictional writing. She currently writes for Bookstalkist.