Visakhapatnam: Technology is going a long way in helping reach the masses. Especially, with a substantial increase in mobile phone penetration in the past few years, accessing people has become a lot more easier, stated the panelists, while discussing the social impact through Fintech.Addressing a gathering at the Vizag Fintech Festival 2018 here on Tuesday, Prasoon Sinha, deputy CEO and CFO of Wave Money, said, “Apart from the infrastructure, which includes proper connection, the need of the hour is to spread awareness on ‘digital literacy’. In a survey that was conducted in the country, it was learnt that only 3.6% of the people knew about insurance and its benefits.”Stating that Myanmar has 85% and Singapore has 76% smartphone penetration respectively, Sinha added, “Although the percentage of smartphone penetration is high in Myanmar, the percentage of digital literacy is low. This is because people in Myanmar use the internet only for Viber and Facebook. Hence, people, especially in developing countries, need to be educated on the financial services that are being provided through digital mediums,” said, Sinha who had earlier worked with telecom operator Telenor.Srinivas Peddada, chief information officer (CIO) at Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd, said, “Fintech needs to provide responsible financial inclusion. Financial literacy is required for every individual so that they are aware of the ecosystem.”“With the help of authentication mechanism like Aadhaar, we can create two lakh kirana points where one can provide their thumbprint and deposit or withdraw money. This will help in roping in people, including those from rural areas into the digital financial economy,” added Srinivas.Mukesh Bubna, founder of Monexo Fintech Pvt Ltd, Alok Jha, managing director of Cyberplat and Sasidhar Thumuluri, CEO and MD at BASIX Sub-K iTransactions Limited, moderator Madan Padaki, CEO and MD of Head Held High Services were among the others present during the occasion.

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