After spending a month looking at different products out there I've recommended that we go with the AMDL bluetooth printer paired with a Nokia 5000 or Nokia 3110C cell phone.
The Access printer is a simple 2 inch thermal printer that is made in India (assembled in Bangalore). This is what makes it very attractive. Anything we import is slapped with import duty, putting the printer squarely out of our price bracket. Having a restrictive price range helped since it quickly narrowed the search down (can't help but contrast this with my profligate ways at the "hedge fund"). The cell phone-printer combination costs around Rs 13000 (~USD 260). This printer is also used by ALW, increasing its attractiveness for us because our bulk numbers increase lowering the price of this device.
This brings us to the next stage of the project - development. The tech team has been working for a week trying to figure out how to communicate via bluetooth etc. etc. Interestingly AMDL provides no software support, no API's no anything. Can you imagine buying a hardware device and not getting any support on how to communicate with the device? I guess this is why it's so much cheaper than any of the other options (Zebra, produced in Europe, costs ~Rs 20,000). There are cheaper printers that we could buy in China (how do the Chinese do it?), but it would make no sense for us since it would come with 0 local after sales support. Someone should try and solve this problem - how can a firm that has a good solid cheap product quickly establish itself in a market to sell it's goods with little upfront costs (an on the ground distribution network that can easily be leveraged by different vendors?).
As we move into the development cycle, I'm getting more downtime. I'm probably going to undertake a microfinance project mapping out Category A loans. More on that in future posts.
Keeping my fingers crossed now for a successful pilot
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Delhi parking
Most urban cities have parking issues. This is stating the obvious - like Subho will not lose the 12 kg's he's aiming to this year.
Delhi though seems to be in a league of it's own. It's one of those things you'll never read about in Lonely Planet. Parking spots are guarded zealously and if you talk to any Dilli-wallah you'll always hear "he got away easy, people get killed for parking".
Parking near my place, like every other place in Delhi, is tight. Very few people have garages and will park their cars on the street in front of their house (so far, nothing objectionable about that). This, people believe, is their right. The street in front of the house is treated as a reserved parking spot for them and no one else dare encroach upon this right. I haven't crossed this hidden line and always park near the market down the street if my roommate has his car in our garage.
Last Saturday we had a party at my place and had a ton of people over. A friend must have parked in an "objectionable" spot near my place. One of my neighbors (don't know who) deflated the tires of this car. At midnight, not only is this annoying but glaringly counter productive if your goal is to move said car. Why would someone do this? You guessed right.
Another friend showed up late at my party. Why, because he was over at his sisters house and when they got out someone had thrown a rock at his windshield, cracking it and there was a massive dent at the side of his car. Nothing stolen, and his best guess is that he too had parked in an "objectionable" spot. He called the cops and what do you think the cops did. Asked him why he left his car on the street? Umm - where else is he supposed to park a car, in the trees? Even the cops know of this unspoken law and are ready to defend it. They refused to file a report about the incident (in India, by law, all cops are required to file a report regardless of the situation). How completely exasperating? That too on a Saturday night!
And when I discussed it with people at work on Monday. "He got away easy, people get killed for parking."
Delhi though seems to be in a league of it's own. It's one of those things you'll never read about in Lonely Planet. Parking spots are guarded zealously and if you talk to any Dilli-wallah you'll always hear "he got away easy, people get killed for parking".
Parking near my place, like every other place in Delhi, is tight. Very few people have garages and will park their cars on the street in front of their house (so far, nothing objectionable about that). This, people believe, is their right. The street in front of the house is treated as a reserved parking spot for them and no one else dare encroach upon this right. I haven't crossed this hidden line and always park near the market down the street if my roommate has his car in our garage.
Last Saturday we had a party at my place and had a ton of people over. A friend must have parked in an "objectionable" spot near my place. One of my neighbors (don't know who) deflated the tires of this car. At midnight, not only is this annoying but glaringly counter productive if your goal is to move said car. Why would someone do this? You guessed right.
Another friend showed up late at my party. Why, because he was over at his sisters house and when they got out someone had thrown a rock at his windshield, cracking it and there was a massive dent at the side of his car. Nothing stolen, and his best guess is that he too had parked in an "objectionable" spot. He called the cops and what do you think the cops did. Asked him why he left his car on the street? Umm - where else is he supposed to park a car, in the trees? Even the cops know of this unspoken law and are ready to defend it. They refused to file a report about the incident (in India, by law, all cops are required to file a report regardless of the situation). How completely exasperating? That too on a Saturday night!
And when I discussed it with people at work on Monday. "He got away easy, people get killed for parking."
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Kerala with Amitav Ghosh
I've not spent much time discussing my travels on this blog, since I wanted to really focus on my Drishtee experience. But my short trips are such an important aspect of my India sabbatical, I can't not talk about it.
This past weekend I went by myself to Kerala for 3 days. Things in Delhi have been so busy, so much stuff going on that its all been a bit of a whirlwind. It was great to get away - just me and my thoughts; and an entertaining book - Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh. I would have enjoyed this getaway with a number of seasoned travel partners, but Amitav Ghosh was great company. Absorbing, and I could shut him off whenever I wanted. What more could one ask for?
March is already a bit hot for Kerala. I landed at 9:30 and was immediately embraced by humid salty air. I loved it! Growing up in Bombay, it was nice going back to the sea. Went straight from the airport to Munnar (hill station 3 hrs away from Kochin).
Munnar is tea estates as far as the eye can see.
I rented a bicycle the first morning and rode around the tea estates. I could have opted for a scooter, but the bike gave me a better opportunity to slow down and interact with people. Kids everywhere shout out as you ride by. And the thing that took me by surprise (even thought I expected it) is that everyone spoke English, making it easy to chat with passerby's.
Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India (100%) and was the first in the world to democratically elect a communist Govt. Till today the marxists run the state.
It's an interesting case study. You'd expect with literacy the economy and social infrastructure would rise as well. Instead Kerala bucked the trend, and lags a number of other Indian states. In fact, it is the one state where in some rural villages you will find a higher female to male ratio. This is because, with no industrial goods to export Kerala exported it's remaining valuable commodity - man power. The direct flights from Kerala to the middle east are a the testament to that. Dollar remittances are a big part of the economy here. As a result Kerala is disproportionately affected by the global financial crunch.
After spending a night in Munnar, I sped off to Kochi, the queen of the Arabian Sea. Kochi is a group of islands and is one of the best natural harbors in south India. It's seen Arabs, Jews (it has a section of town called "Jew Town"), Portuguese, Dutch and of course the British. I stayed in Fort Kochi, a small island that is perfect for travelers. Everything is walking distance, and because it is so small you keep running into other travelers, and you quickly become part of this community of visitors. You can never feel out of place when everyone is just like you.
They have a number of great restaurants in Fort Kochi. It's hard not to given how great Kerala food is. And I don't know what it is about fish cooked in banana leaves, it's mouth watering. I wish I had time to take a cooking class there - you can buy your own fish in the market, take it back and they teach you how to cook it followed by an incredible dinner. Guess I'll just have to go back for that.
There was just so much stuff to do there, and I didn't get to do enough. I went to a culture program and saw a Kathak performance, spent the day in the backwaters, sunset at the fishing nets, and of course a great relaxing Kerala ayurvedic massage. I would have loved to have just sat in one of the tea shops and read more of my book, or done some historical sight seeing, or taken a sunset cruise, or gone to some of the surrounding small islands and beaches. Fort Kochi is a great place to come relax and just mellow out. Anyone planning a trip to India - think about spending 4 or 5 days here. You can easily make it your base and do short trips to surrounding tourist destinations.
The last night in Kochi it rained, and I mean REALLY rained. Going to sleep with the sound of a heavy downpour was a perfect ending to this weekend. Too bad I won't be in India for the monsoons...
Here are some pics from my trip -
This past weekend I went by myself to Kerala for 3 days. Things in Delhi have been so busy, so much stuff going on that its all been a bit of a whirlwind. It was great to get away - just me and my thoughts; and an entertaining book - Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh. I would have enjoyed this getaway with a number of seasoned travel partners, but Amitav Ghosh was great company. Absorbing, and I could shut him off whenever I wanted. What more could one ask for?
March is already a bit hot for Kerala. I landed at 9:30 and was immediately embraced by humid salty air. I loved it! Growing up in Bombay, it was nice going back to the sea. Went straight from the airport to Munnar (hill station 3 hrs away from Kochin).
Munnar is tea estates as far as the eye can see.
I rented a bicycle the first morning and rode around the tea estates. I could have opted for a scooter, but the bike gave me a better opportunity to slow down and interact with people. Kids everywhere shout out as you ride by. And the thing that took me by surprise (even thought I expected it) is that everyone spoke English, making it easy to chat with passerby's.
Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India (100%) and was the first in the world to democratically elect a communist Govt. Till today the marxists run the state.
It's an interesting case study. You'd expect with literacy the economy and social infrastructure would rise as well. Instead Kerala bucked the trend, and lags a number of other Indian states. In fact, it is the one state where in some rural villages you will find a higher female to male ratio. This is because, with no industrial goods to export Kerala exported it's remaining valuable commodity - man power. The direct flights from Kerala to the middle east are a the testament to that. Dollar remittances are a big part of the economy here. As a result Kerala is disproportionately affected by the global financial crunch.
After spending a night in Munnar, I sped off to Kochi, the queen of the Arabian Sea. Kochi is a group of islands and is one of the best natural harbors in south India. It's seen Arabs, Jews (it has a section of town called "Jew Town"), Portuguese, Dutch and of course the British. I stayed in Fort Kochi, a small island that is perfect for travelers. Everything is walking distance, and because it is so small you keep running into other travelers, and you quickly become part of this community of visitors. You can never feel out of place when everyone is just like you.
They have a number of great restaurants in Fort Kochi. It's hard not to given how great Kerala food is. And I don't know what it is about fish cooked in banana leaves, it's mouth watering. I wish I had time to take a cooking class there - you can buy your own fish in the market, take it back and they teach you how to cook it followed by an incredible dinner. Guess I'll just have to go back for that.
There was just so much stuff to do there, and I didn't get to do enough. I went to a culture program and saw a Kathak performance, spent the day in the backwaters, sunset at the fishing nets, and of course a great relaxing Kerala ayurvedic massage. I would have loved to have just sat in one of the tea shops and read more of my book, or done some historical sight seeing, or taken a sunset cruise, or gone to some of the surrounding small islands and beaches. Fort Kochi is a great place to come relax and just mellow out. Anyone planning a trip to India - think about spending 4 or 5 days here. You can easily make it your base and do short trips to surrounding tourist destinations.
The last night in Kochi it rained, and I mean REALLY rained. Going to sleep with the sound of a heavy downpour was a perfect ending to this weekend. Too bad I won't be in India for the monsoons...
Here are some pics from my trip -
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Wednesday, March 4, 2009
More on ALW
In my previous post on financial inclusion I talked about how Drishtee is working with ALW in Assam. And in case it didn't come through in previous posts, I am pretty excited about what these kinds of disruptive technologies can do.
I'm tempering that excitement now. I've learnt a bit more on ALW, and I give it a thumbs down. My biggest complaint is that villagers are tied to the access point where they opened their account to withdraw money. The excuse given is that villagers don't leave their village much so it's not a big inconvenience for them to just "bank" at the kiosk they opened their account at. Gimme a break!
Just to refresh your memory, the way it works is that SBI has partnered with ALW to provide a technology banking solution for rural India. Drishtee is the "business correspondent" (BC) that actually implements this solution in the field. Our entrepreneurs/kiosk owner (KO) make money by getting a fee for every account they open and 0.5% of all transactions. This last piece is a bit backward. If a customer deposits Rs. 100 then the KO makes Rs 0.50. Now the same customer can withdraw this money and again the KO makes Rs 0.50. It's a great money making loop [insert favorite reference to the financial crisis in America]. So what does the bank do? They limit the number of transactions in a day. Which sort of sucks because financial inclusion is not just about opening bank accounts, it's getting people to actually use the system. And putting a limit on the transactions just defeats the purpose. The RBI probably said you need to have x number of rural accounts and the banks scrambled to achieve this. Great example of how poorly defined metrics can achieve lop sided results. I just want to scream out - "focus on the goal!".
There are other solution providers out there. I know of eko and mCheck. mCheck is clearly the leading player. They have a tie up with Airtel (leading mobile phone provider in India). You buy a airtel sim card, and you get mCheck pre installed. mCheck just enables mobile payments by letting you connect your sim card to your debit card or credit card. We're exploring with mCheck a proposal to bring to SBI for rural banking. They don't have the silly limitation of only doing banking at the kiosk you opened your account at. You're account is connected to your cell phone, and you can make a mobile payment to anyone with a mCheck enabled sim card from anywhere there is cell phone coverage. Also mCheck is probably going to charge a subscription fee instead of 0.5% per transaction. This way villagers will use the service more and make it part of their everyday lives. We have to figure out how the kiosk owner ends up making money in this model. The right incentive structure is critical.
A side note on how I think they came to this 0.5% transaction fee. I think some smart McKinsey analyst probably calculated that it costs banks around 2% per transaction at a branch and 1% at the ATM. So they just extend this model for rural banking and say at 0.5% I'm saving money. Again, pretty silly IMO. It's a completely new model, requiring people to think in new paradigms.
There are other benefits to the mCheck approach like reducing Drishtee Foundations exposure etc. but I'm not going to get into that (email me if you want to know more). The challenge with mCheck is whether SBI will want to adopt such a technology. ALW uses biometric finger print scans, and apparently that is considered more secure by banks. I don't know enough about the security regulations, but that is a big strike against mCheck. I do use my credit card everyday and I don't really need an eye scan or finger print to authorize a payment. mCheck requires a physical sim card as well as a pin number to authorize transactions - and that maps pretty well to how ATM cards work today and I consider that very secure. I think it's just the issue of a new technology being accepted as normal/standard. HDFC canceled it's banking pilot with EKO (another mobile payment solution) because they claimed it was less secure that debit cards and than people don't see cell phones as a banking mode.
Is anyone else seeing a pattern here of decision makers not visualizing what the future looks like?
I'm tempering that excitement now. I've learnt a bit more on ALW, and I give it a thumbs down. My biggest complaint is that villagers are tied to the access point where they opened their account to withdraw money. The excuse given is that villagers don't leave their village much so it's not a big inconvenience for them to just "bank" at the kiosk they opened their account at. Gimme a break!
Just to refresh your memory, the way it works is that SBI has partnered with ALW to provide a technology banking solution for rural India. Drishtee is the "business correspondent" (BC) that actually implements this solution in the field. Our entrepreneurs/kiosk owner (KO) make money by getting a fee for every account they open and 0.5% of all transactions. This last piece is a bit backward. If a customer deposits Rs. 100 then the KO makes Rs 0.50. Now the same customer can withdraw this money and again the KO makes Rs 0.50. It's a great money making loop [insert favorite reference to the financial crisis in America]. So what does the bank do? They limit the number of transactions in a day. Which sort of sucks because financial inclusion is not just about opening bank accounts, it's getting people to actually use the system. And putting a limit on the transactions just defeats the purpose. The RBI probably said you need to have x number of rural accounts and the banks scrambled to achieve this. Great example of how poorly defined metrics can achieve lop sided results. I just want to scream out - "focus on the goal!".
There are other solution providers out there. I know of eko and mCheck. mCheck is clearly the leading player. They have a tie up with Airtel (leading mobile phone provider in India). You buy a airtel sim card, and you get mCheck pre installed. mCheck just enables mobile payments by letting you connect your sim card to your debit card or credit card. We're exploring with mCheck a proposal to bring to SBI for rural banking. They don't have the silly limitation of only doing banking at the kiosk you opened your account at. You're account is connected to your cell phone, and you can make a mobile payment to anyone with a mCheck enabled sim card from anywhere there is cell phone coverage. Also mCheck is probably going to charge a subscription fee instead of 0.5% per transaction. This way villagers will use the service more and make it part of their everyday lives. We have to figure out how the kiosk owner ends up making money in this model. The right incentive structure is critical.
A side note on how I think they came to this 0.5% transaction fee. I think some smart McKinsey analyst probably calculated that it costs banks around 2% per transaction at a branch and 1% at the ATM. So they just extend this model for rural banking and say at 0.5% I'm saving money. Again, pretty silly IMO. It's a completely new model, requiring people to think in new paradigms.
There are other benefits to the mCheck approach like reducing Drishtee Foundations exposure etc. but I'm not going to get into that (email me if you want to know more). The challenge with mCheck is whether SBI will want to adopt such a technology. ALW uses biometric finger print scans, and apparently that is considered more secure by banks. I don't know enough about the security regulations, but that is a big strike against mCheck. I do use my credit card everyday and I don't really need an eye scan or finger print to authorize a payment. mCheck requires a physical sim card as well as a pin number to authorize transactions - and that maps pretty well to how ATM cards work today and I consider that very secure. I think it's just the issue of a new technology being accepted as normal/standard. HDFC canceled it's banking pilot with EKO (another mobile payment solution) because they claimed it was less secure that debit cards and than people don't see cell phones as a banking mode.
Is anyone else seeing a pattern here of decision makers not visualizing what the future looks like?
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