Rajasthan seems an improbable setting for a technology revolution. Yet for the past year the historic northern state has provided the testing ground for an idea that some believe could help bring basic financial services to hundreds of millions of Indians for the first time – in the form of mobile money.
In November 2011 just outside Jaipur, a city better known for its hill-top forts and charming pink buildings, Vodafone, the UK-based mobile phone company, announced plans to pilot M-Pesa. This service, pioneered in Africa, lets users store cash on their phones and use it either to shop, pay bills or send money to others.
Since then Vodafone, which is India’s second-largest mobile operator, has been busily signing up agents in nearby villages, who are often simply small shop owners in dusty roadside shacks, who then sell the product to locals. The trial went well, and last month the company announced plans to roll it out nationwide.