This week instead of talking about any personal finance aspect, I am going to tell you a small cute story. I was sitting with a colleague of mine when she told me this cute story of her niece and how the changing dynamics of the consumer world will affect the generations to come. One day her 3-year old niece was playing with her father’s phone. Her father asked her “what are you doing”? She replied back I want to buy shoes for myself. She had often seen her parents buying stuff through that shopping app and hence she thought she could also do it. So when she liked something she immediately asked her father to give her the debit card. Her parents burst into laughter J J and then just to see what she would do with the card, they gave her the card. To their surprise she just flipped the card front and back as her parents used to do to see the card details. This was hilarious and when she narrated this to me even I could not control laughing.
But this cute little incident taught me something we should all ponder upon – the upcoming generations would be bought up in a cashless world. Yes it seems hard to believe. But that’s how the future looks to me. RBI’s recent move of mandating 11 companies to act as payment banks has marked the beginning of a world that would function on just ONE TOUCH. These payment banks can also issue ATM cum debit cards to allow users to access funds when needed. Even today portals like Paytm or Airtel Money or Vodafone M-Pesa etc. allows you to have an online wallet which can be used for recharges or bill payments or cab ride payments etc. Not just this they even allows you to remit funds from one wallet to another with a touch of a finger. Paytm even today allows you to remit funds from one Paytm wallet to another. This has already eased out the hassles of entering your card details or logging into your bank account to make payments or remit funds for small things. If you can’t pay, you can remit money to your spouse or father or sibling and ask them to pay on your behalf.
When I look back in time, it’s really shocking to see how things have evolved. From barter to Ashrafis; from ashrafis to paper money; from paper money to Electronic money (credit card, debit card, online banking) and now from electronic money we are gearing up to embrace the Mobile Money. What next!!!
