WEF-Jan 2020<\/a>), the combination of youth, connectedness, education, and multiple income generation opportunities is leading to a surge in rural aspirations and manifesting itself in new consumption choices.<\/p>\nThis digital consumption opportunity which is waiting to unfold has also captured the interest of product and service providers and data analysts alike. Technologies like big data analytics, machine learning, blockchain, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI), are increasingly deployed to offer products beyond cities and in rural areas. Side by side, the emergence of fintech companies have improved access to credit and multiple income generation streams are driving consumption.<\/p>\n
The WEF report has pointed out the financial requirements of rural customers that are varied depending on their geographical, occupational, and cultural factors, local customs, and aspirations. However, the constraints they face are common. They broadly include unstructured cash flows, which limits access to formal credit; an inherent lack of trust in digital transactions; digital and financial illiteracy; and a strong preference for a face-to-face, touch-and-feel experience. While all these factors are being addressed effectively so that more people become increasingly comfortable with technology and logistics and physical infrastructure are falling in place, it\u2019s an ongoing journey.<\/p>\n
So, as things stand, India’s rural customers are not yet ready to go completely digital while accessing finance or in their consumption endeavours. For the time being, physical and digital connectivity also pose as constraints.<\/p>\n
The WEF report suggests, Phygitalisation\u00a0of the rural ecosystem, therefore, is potentially the immediate solution to accelerate rural inclusion.<\/p>\n
The report goes on to explain that the dynamic between physical and digital financial services companies is shifting from disruption to collaboration as both bring some compelling strengths to the table. On the one hand traditional financial services providers have a competitive advantage in terms of their knowledge base, experience, existing payment transactions infrastructure, and their compliance and risk operations; building all these will take time as they are not easily replicated. Fintechs, on the other hand, can put new technologies to work and quickly shrink distances, expand customer segments, offer customized experiences and bring in efficiencies on multiple levels. And this holds true for the consumption space as well.<\/p>\n
So, on the horizon, it appears that a collaborative and mutually beneficial ecosystem will emerge, which captures the strengths of both physical and digital towards addressing the challenges on the ground more effectively. This will unlock opportunities for inclusive growth much more rapidly and create sustainable economies and societies that leave no one behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An interesting paradox \u2013 and this is not new to India \u2013 is that despite all of 65% of the population living in rural areas, the rural economy contributes only 46% of the National Income. While this can be seen as a glass half empty, it\u2019s also a glass half full. It reflects the latent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":24017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"subscriptions":[],"news":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24016,"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24014\/revisions\/24016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24014"},{"taxonomy":"subscriptions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/subscriptions?post=24014"},{"taxonomy":"news","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianeconomyandmarket.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news?post=24014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}