Mahagram aims to possibly enable any Native American to seamlessly benefit from financial inclusion, government programs and broader access to basic goods and services. They leverage their vast network of retail access points to deliver real-time BFSI services, government-to-citizen services and business-to-consumer services to unattended rural, semi-urban and urban markets. They aim to be the most reliable consumer service point for rural India, by making solutions even simpler and sustainable and by offering products and services that are even more reliable and affordable. Mr. Ram Shriram, CEO, Mahagram in discussion with CXOTi day shares his insight on the same.
Q1. What is the main concept behind the launch of Mahagram? Can you tell me Mahagram’s business model? How does Mahagram benefit people in rural areas?
Ans. Mahagram is a well-recognized technology-driven FinTech company. It focuses on creating India’s largest network of last mile retail outlets.
Over the years, Mahagram has carved a niche for itself in the market and is known as a technology-driven company that focuses on innovative banking and financial technologies to help digitize villages. By partnering with banks and financial institutions, Mahagram offers solutions for solving basic banking services and public schemes through their 7 lakh plus established chain of outlets. The idea is to help poor and needy people with financial, public and banking services through neighborhood stores owned and managed by residents.
The platform helps governments, banks and local governments to implement their citizen-centered projects in rural India. It offers Aadhar-enabled payment services that act as an ATM used for cash withdrawals in places where there are no banks within available limits. At Mahagram, they also have domestic money transfer options that help workers from abroad send money to their families on an immediate basis.
Mahagram currently serves almost 15,000 PINs and offers basic banking, e-governance and other BFSI services through the distribution network to around 12,000 distributors and 7 lakh + retail partners. The company has expanded across 17 states with a strong foothold in states west, north and northeast. The Mahagram team’s task is to create the largest distribution network with 4 lakh RBC outlets that have access to over 30 million poor people in rural and urban areas by offering world-class technology and reaching the latest milestone.
BharatATM by Mahagram is a financial platform that helps kiranas and neighborhood stores provide banking services to customers. Under the BharatATM brand, we have sought to drive universal inclusion through the brand’s “BankSakhi” initiative, which aims to “empower women financially”. The initiative has given a good head start and helped 11,230 women earn an average of Rs 8K / month. We are in the process of strengthening our means to reach more and more people who benefit from the initiative to drive a social change that stands for “women’s empowerment” in its truest form.
- BharatATM has created employment for more than 2 lakh rural residents
- We have included more than 11,000 women as Bank Sakhis and strengthened them with decent paying professions.
- Created economic awareness for more than 1 million consumers in rural areas
- Helped more than 2 million customers deliver cash on request during the pandemic
Q2. How did you develop the technology?
Ans. When I, together with Mahagram’s team, identified a problem and a logical solution, and the next step was to convert the solution into a technologically advanced, most modern and user-friendly interactive technology to strengthen both our network and service delivery. Of course, needless to say, there were so many technical platforms available for us to develop our application. But after deep studies and thorough technical research, we finally identified a .NET platform with core java to develop a technologically superior 4-layer security layer-driven fintech application, we are proud of the fact that our application today is considered the best benchmark. application in the fintech area.
Q3. Economic inclusion of women, especially in rural settings, has been a national agenda; What are the initiatives taken by Mahagram to translate the agenda?
Ans. As FinTechs play an important role in writing India’s growth history and bringing the necessary economic inclusion across the country, they also play an important role in empowering women. To empower women in rural areas, fintech micro-ATMs such as Mahagram collaborate with various women-centered programs such as “Bank Sakhi.” The country women are trained by the Fintech institutions and act as micro-ATMs to facilitate the lives of the villagers during the pandemic.
Mahagram has signed a partnership with IndusInd Bank, a new generation of Indian banks to digitize the country’s payment ecosystem and provide a broader horizon for transactions, especially for customers in rural India. The partnership between the two aims to increase financial inclusion, encourage socio-economic development, reduce the risk of a shadow economy and accelerate the growth of a cashless society. This association will also ensure the construction of an efficient, reliable and secure payment ecosystem, which will not only promote and encourage the use of e-payment methods, but also help sellers across the country to easily accept digital payments, making it more accessible. to all. Mahagram’s goal will be to add 15 million small merchants to UPI QR in this financial year. Going forward, our vision is to expand to other sectors, while working to promote the entire payment ecosystem and achieve financial inclusion in India.
Mahagram was recently linked to the Bank of Maharashtra to roll out the ‘Bank Sakhi’ project in the state of Odisha to provide financial technology and infrastructure support for the project. As part of the commitment, the company has included more than 11,230 bank sachies (women) on the BharatATM platform to help rural residents use basic banking services right on their doorstep or the Kirana shops next door, thereby driving rural financial inclusion.
Under these schemes, women from Sakhi Mandals are trained as Bank Sakhis, Bank & Micro-ATM correspondent agents. These women provide banking services such as cash deposits and withdrawals, money transfers, loans, etc. on your doorstep. These women are trained to take banking services to remote areas of the state. With the help of micro-ATMs, these women increase financial inclusion and deliver public schemes while earning a living. While the Bank Sakhi model is an innovative strategy for achieving financial inclusion, it was female bank agents who were ready to deepen the latest milestone delivery of financial services, especially for female customers, in hard-to-reach rural areas.
Q4. How do you generate revenue?
Ans. Every transaction agent that performs on the eGram Kendra platform is linked to an incentive paid by the government or the banks. Maximum income comes from the transaction fees we charge the issuing bank (customer’s bank) or to customers as convenience fees. RBI & NPCI have set some standard transaction exchange fees in AEPS (an interoperable aadhaar-based transaction model) which is 0.50% and a maximum of Rs.15 which must be paid by the issuing bank to buy bank which is shared or paid to Mahagram and retailer.
Q5. Which states have you covered?
Ans. Mahagram is present in more than 17 states in India. Mainly covered Maharashtra, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Punjab and other northeastern states.
Q6. What is the growth path for Mahagram?
Ans. Our aim is to establish Mahagram as a brand that is synonymous with being India’s largest network of last-mile retail outlets for basic banking needs. The Mahagram team’s mission is to create the largest distribution network with 4 lakh RBC outlets that have access to over 30 million poor people in rural and urban areas by offering world-class technology, and now the latest mile customer.
