Village people

An acquaintance in Mumbai writes, "Swaminath Yadav is the person who drives me to office every morning. Imagine my surprise when I learnt that the commission for sending money to his family living in a village in Uttar Pradesh is 5% (Rs5 per Rs100 is how he put it). He uses an informal network run by a "panditji" from his viilage. The advantage is that the money is delivered to his wife at her doorstep within a couple of hours. Why doesn't he use a bank? Because the nearest bank is 10kms away and his wife with a small child cannot do the trek every month. Even the Post Office, I was surprised to know, charges 5% commission on Money Orders and many a time the postman also asks for his "cut" when delivering the money." The hope is that the ability to transfer cash via a mobile phone will revolutionise this system.