Next India

Alok,

At the outset heartiest congrats for starting this blog. I look forward to contributing and learning. We  have started a movement to bring Universal Financial Services (UFA) to every Indian by 2013. I am going to make all members of the UFA movement aware of Next India as some of them may want to subscribe and/or contribute.  Thanks for adding UFA to the Next India blog roll. In this post I am making all readers of Next India aware of UFA but later I intend to contribute/learn on other topis as well. The overview follows

UFA or Universal Financial Access is scalable microfinance using innovation and no subsidies.

Microfinance is the ability to provide micro – savings, payments, loans, insurance investment and pensions profitably and experts are unanimous that microfinance improves lives and is a key enabler in the battle against poverty. High costs have prevented microfinance from scaling. Innovation and technology can be used to eliminate the high cost problem.

UFA will give every Indian self confidence and a path to financial independence. We have started a movement to get our PM to declare UFA by 2013 a national priority as soon as possible. With this clear signal we believe private capital will rush in and find ways to achieve the goal. The movement is about what needs to be done and not how it should be done. It is agnostic to business or technology models.

India has already done this in telecom where we have near universal telecom access and the government has made money. This gives us confidence that if we have the will we can achieve UFA by 2013. Please browse our website   and if you feel inspired please join the movement and get others both institutions and individuals to join. The movement also has a Facebook page  where you can become a fan and suggest to your friends that they become fans.

We need a large number of online and offline institutional and individual members to strengthen the Governments hands against vested interests that oppose UFA. This is every persons opportunity to make a difference and you do not need to burn buses, block traffic or send roses.  You need to convince anybody who will listen to join the movement. Join now. If  you need convincing contact me or any other UFA member.

Thanks for your time in reading this post and I look forward to reading and answering any comments positive or negative.