The MMT programme is focused on catering to the needs of the large expatriate community of people from developing countries who live and work away from their homes and families and regularly remit money back to their families and loved ones.
"The project is particularly relevant and important for India which is the largest recipient of international remittances from about 20 to 25 million Indians working across 130 countries. The World Bank has estimated that in 2005 Indian expatriates remitted over $22 billion back home. Therefore, remitting funds need to be very simple and quick," said Dayanidhi Maran, Indian Union minister of communications and information technology.
There are over 200 million people worldwide who live and work away from their homes and these people, in 2005, remitted over $230 billion. The programme is expected to overcome the constraint of limited reach of the traditional retail banking infrastructure by enabling transfer of money through a simple SMS.
"This would lead to an all round improvement in the economic and social well being of the recipients, as the ease of access and lower costs will expand the use of as the preferred channel for foreign remittances," reasoned Maran.
Maran noted that in India, mobile services have now percolated down to the lowest income groups. In fact, a recent survey showed that 19.4 per cent of mobile users in India do not even own a bicycle. The MMT programme will thus have the potential to take the simple mobile phone another step forward in becoming a complete convergent device, he said.
The MMT will also have the advantage of converting the mobile into a device for conducting financial transactions. It would give rise to the use of the mobile wallet. It could provide an opportunity to nurture micro finance disbursement and management.
All these would once again give India the opportunity to leapfrog over its legacy issues and concerns and facilitate financial transactions and e-commerce with ease.
He noted that India and Indian companies "are fully participating in the MMT programme, demonstrating their commitment to ever improving the lives of Indian citizens".
Last year, it was the Emerging Market Handset programme, which was launched by GSMA and "ably assisted by Indian stakeholders". This year, it is the GSMA MMT programme, noted Maran.
