Reimagining the Indian government’s telemedicine platform

Posted on by MSC

1. Background 

Toward the end of December, 2020, The Times of India reported incidents of sexual harassment on Indian telemedicine platforms that offer consultations with doctors. The report noted that these platforms “have become sites for sexual harassment of women doctors, with ‘patients’ flashing, masturbating or making lewd conversation in the guise of seeking consultation.” The report went on to state that instead of informing the police of such incidents, the platforms kept it under wraps and implemented additional measures to prevent such incidents, without much success. While the report mentions the misuse of some private platforms, it does not mention whether eSanjeevani, the telemedicine platform of the Government of India where more than 1 million consultations have been recorded until the end of December, faced similar issues.

eSanjeevani had its genesis on 25th March, 2020 when the Medical Council of India (MCI) and NITI Aayog jointly released the telemedicine practice guidelines. These guidelines enable Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) to provide healthcare remotely using digital platforms. Soon after, on 13th April, 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) launched eSanjeevani, a platform that offers remote health services. Private sector players, such as Practo, 1mg, among others, also rapidly launched their telemedicine services. 

Telemedicine is not new to India. As early as 2009, Health Point Services (HPS) launched a telemedicine offering, eHealthpoint (eHP), in Punjab. However, eHP did not gain much traction. A decade later, the delivery of health services online is now an attractive proposition. This was possible through India’s robust telecommunication infrastructure and ubiquitous availability of the 4G network. The low cost of data, a result of competition among telecom players, as well as high mobile penetration also played a major role in this transition. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the need for remote healthcare and consultation.

2. The government’s telemedicine platform: e-Sanjeevani 

eSanjeevani seeks to improve access to health services that had been severely curtailed during the pandemic. This was due to movement restrictions imposed during the lockdown and due to the lack of available health infrastructure as a result of COVID-19. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) developed and launched eSanjeevani in record time. The platform is available in the following two variations:

  1. Doctor-to-doctor teleconsultations, provided through eSanjeevani Ayushman Bharat–Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWC): This is deployed in 6,000 HWCs and is served by specialists and doctors in around 240 hubs. More than 20,000 paramedics, doctors, and specialists received training to use eSanjeevani AB-HWC.
  2. Doctor-to-patient teleconsultations, provided free of cost through the eSanjeevaniOPD platform: eSanjeevaniOPD enables contactless consultations between a doctor and a patient. Approximately 8,000 doctors received training and were onboarded on eSanjeevaniOPD.

As per the Press Information Bureau on 14th December, 2020, the 1 million consultations recorded until December included more than 200,000 doctor-to-doctor consultations and more than 750,000 doctor-to-patient consultations.

3. Addressing the three “As” in eSanjeevaniOPD: Abuse, availability, and access

While it is commendable that the government reacted with alacrity and agility to ensure health services were available in remote areas, the eSanjeevani platform faces three main issues, which are discussed below.

Abuse: The verification process involved in the registration is similar to that of private platforms, which makes eSanjeevaniOPD susceptible to abuse. A patient must register on the platform before they can use it. The two-step process requires a patient to first verify their mobile number through a one-time password (OTP). Subsequently, they must complete a registration form that includes personally identifiable information (PII), such as name, age, biological sex, and address. To simplify the registration process, no proof of identity is requested at the time of registration. This makes it easy for potential abusers to misrepresent their details and enter the platform without being traced back. The OTP verification only serves to confirm whether the patient can access the mobile number provided during registration. It does not provide additional verification features that can enable law enforcement agencies to trace back the number in case of misuse.

One way to address the issue of abuse mentioned in the article of The Times of India is to use Aadhaar verification during the registration process where an OTP would be sent to the mobile number registered against the person’s Aadhaar. However, this would complicate the registration process and as many do not have their Aadhar linked with their mobile numbers, they would not be able to use the platform. Another way to address abuse in the platform would be to match doctors and patients algorithmically, based on biological sex. This will discourage those who sign up to misuse the platform. Users of the eSanjeevani platform confirmed that male patients were matched with female doctors. This could potentially lead to misuse, similar to incidents reported on private platforms. Moreover, as mentioned explicitly in the telemedicine guidelines, consultations should not be anonymous and both the patient and the doctor need to know each other’s identity. This enables the platform to identify any misrepresentations and take necessary action.

Availability: Doctors, particularly women, who have faced such abuse on these platforms may decline to provide online consultations going forward. This would further reduce the availability of healthcare professionals necessary for the platform to function effectively. eSanjeevani already struggles with a shortage of doctors, which is evident by the time it takes for a patient to receive relevant advice after they request a consultation. Patients recounted incidents where doctors were not readily available, which resulted in long waiting times. They mentioned that it sometimes took more than an hour to consult a doctor, with no indication of the time it would take for a doctor to become available.

Although the portal provides patients with an option to select specialist consultation services through a drop-down menu during registration, patients often receive a message stating that the selected service is closed. Patients then try to avail of a general service where the doctor may not be qualified to diagnose the problem, which can lead to an unsuccessful consultation. This suboptimal experience could discourage them from trying to use the platform again. Besides onboarding more doctors, the platform can provide an option for patients to record their symptoms or ailments when they first seek a consultation. The patient can either type it in their chosen language or record an audio message. Using natural language processing (NLP), the platform can then initiate an algorithmic match between a doctor and a patient to reduce unsuccessful consultations.

Access: While telemedicine practice guidelines allow for video, audio, text-based, and asynchronous modes of communication for teleconsultation, the eSanjeevani platform is solely video-based. This requires the patient to have a smartphone or a laptop with an internet connection. The eSanjeevaniOPD application makes remote health consultation accessible to those with such technology. However, it does not solve the problem for digitally excluded individuals and communities, which include those with feature phones that have no internet connectivity or those who do not own a mobile phone. As of October, 2019, approximately half of India’s population was digitally excluded. Even among those who own a mobile phone, 40% remain digitally excluded. Moreover, the patient must also complete the registration forms before they can initiate a teleconsultation and navigate through the appointment process. This requires a knowledge of the English language since the forms and instructions are only available in English. To ensure that such services are accessible to all, governments should set up functional teleconsultation helplines, auto-diallers, text messages, and other asynchronous channels as these modes are permissible under the telemedicine guidelines.  

The government can also use community-based digital centers equipped with mobiles or tablets to increase access, such as      panchayat (village level government) offices and Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Governments that do not make adequate investments in these channels risk excluding their “digitally limited” segments of the population, thereby depriving them of access to healthcare. This could lead to a situation where the most vulnerable populations with limited access to healthcare cannot access remote healthcare services as well.

4. The way forward: Benchmarking eSanjeevani to global platforms

Besides strengthening eSanjeevani along the lines of the three As discussed above, it can also benefit from offering a wider variety of services similar to other online health platforms based in India and overseas. To reimagine more diversified service offerings on the eSanjeevaniOPD platform, we benchmarked services offered in the teleconsultation space by eSanjeevani, Practo and 1mg in India, Ping An Good Doctor (PAGD) in China, and Amwell and Teladoc in the USA. Some of the services available on these platforms include online consultations, e-health profiles, express drug delivery, health management plans, appointment services, health check-ups, hospital referrals, second opinions, inpatient arrangements, and domestic or overseas medical services (see Appendix-2 for description of the services). The table below highlights the services these platforms provide.     

As evident from the benchmarking analysis provided above, there is an untapped opportunity to build eSanjeevani into a world-class teleconsultation platform. This is possible by integrating it within the larger healthcare ecosystem that connects hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, laboratories, diagnostic centers, and doctors who offer in-person consultations. This could be pursued through the National Digital health Mission (NDHM) of the Government of India. However, the government must first address the three “As” of abuse, availability, and access.

Appendix 1: Various health platforms used for comparative study 

Practo is a platform based in India that seeks to simplify healthcare by connecting the entire healthcare ecosystem, which includes patients, doctors, pharmacies, diagnostics, clinics, hospitals, and testing labs, among others. Patients can consult doctors virtually and book appointments with them for in-person consultations, order medicines, as well as book tests and check-ups. Practo offers a management software to clinics and hospitals to facilitate activities, such as appointment booking. It enables doctors to create their profiles to increase their online presence and offer online consultations and also allows patients to make appointments for offline consultations. 1mg is another Indian online healthcare service that serves primarily as an online pharmacy. It also offers online consultations and allows patients to book lab tests.

1mg is an online health platform operating in India. 1mg aims to make access to healthcare a hassle-free experience by addressing all health needs of an individual remotely. One can avail of allopathic, ayurvedic, homeopathic medicines, vitamins & nutrition supplements and other health-related products delivered at home. The company also collects samples for lab tests at the patient’s home and provides a platform to consult doctors.

Ping An Good Doctor (PAGD) is a healthcare software company that operates in China, headquartered in Shanghai. PAGD utilizes the internet and artificial intelligence (AI) to address gaps in the Chinese healthcare system. Its objective is to become a one-stop healthcare platform by integrating healthcare information, medical services, drugs, health supplements and equipment, as well as health plans. This includes doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, physiotherapy centers, health check-ups, fitness, beauty care, insurance, and e-commerce. PAGD offers online consultations, e-health profiles, express drug delivery, health management plans, health headlines, centralized appointment services for offline consultation, health check-ups, hospital referrals, second opinion, inpatient arrangements, and domestic or overseas medical services (medical tourism). 

Amwell is a telemedicine company based in Boston, Massachusetts that connects patients with doctors over video calls. For healthcare providers, Amwell sells its platform as a subscription service to place their medical professionals online. Its software development kits, APIs, and system integrations enable clients to embed their system into existing workflows.

Teladoc Health, Inc. is a telemedicine and virtual healthcare company based in the US. It provides telehealth services, medical opinions, AI and analytics, and licensable platform services. Teladoc Health uses telephone, video conferencing, and mobile apps to provide on-demand remote medical care.

Appendix 2: Description of the services that have been used for benchmarking telemedicine platforms

Online consultation: Patients can talk to physicians online and consult them through video or voice calls for diagnosis, prescriptions, and other services

E-health profile: Digital version of a patient’s health chart that includes real-time health records, which capture their medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, immunization records, test results, etc.

Express drug delivery: Medicines can be delivered to patients soon after a consultation, through a delivery platform

Health plans: Customized health plans based on e-health profiles of patients

Appointment services: Booking of appointments through a centralized system

Health check-up: Thorough physical examination, including a variety of tests based on the age and health of a person

Hospital referral: After consultation with a physician, if more advanced care is required, the doctor can refer the patient to a hospital

Second opinion: After an unsatisfactory diagnosis, a patient can request to consult a different doctor for a second opinion

Inpatient arrangement: Arrangement for admitting patients to a hospital for surgery or other procedures

Domestic/ overseas services: Travel arrangement for patients who wish to travel to a different location for medical treatment or care

Designing new-age Government to Citizens (G2C) applications based on the principles of “Technology as a public good’’ and a microservices based architecture

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As India grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, state governments launched various mobile and web applications to deliver social welfare and essential services and disseminate reliable information, among others. These applications differ significantly from each other in terms of their features, development approach, and data privacy. This policy brief proposes a paradigm shift to a more interoperable, open, APIs-based federated microservices architecture. The central and state governments can use this architecture to co-develop government-to-citizen (G2C) applications while ensuring adequate data privacy and standardization. 

 

 

Digital ID in the time of COVID-19 in India

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India’s social welfare delivery system relies on Aadhaar, a biometric digital ID system, to identify and authenticate beneficiaries. About 800 million people use biometric authentication to receive highly subsidized rations every month through the Public Distribution System (PDS). Similarly, millions of beneficiaries use biometric authentication to withdraw money that they receive from social welfare programs and other sources through bank agents, known as business correspondents (BCs). Almost all these transactions rely on a single technology, that is, fingerprint-based authentication. 

On 25th March, 2020, the Government of India (GoI) announced an unprecedented nationwide lockdown to curtail the spread of COVID-19. To mitigate the lockdown’s social and economic impact, the GoI rolled out several measures related to welfare and relief. The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) was the first such measure and included free food grains and cash aid for the poor and vulnerable segments.

During the lockdown period, and even now, fingerprint-based technology was the primary mode for beneficiaries to authenticate themselves to access benefits under the PMGKY and other social benefit transfer programs. The high-contact nature of fingerprint technology created apprehension among service delivery agents and beneficiaries due to the risk of COVID-19 transmission. In the absence of any reliable alternate technology, they had no other option but to use their fingerprint. 

Alternative modes of authentication have been required for a long time, primarily to reduce failure and manage exceptions. For example, studies show that out of the ~7 million Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AePS) transactions between December 2014-2018 facilitated by Business Correspondents (BCs), 34% failed –  of which 17% were due to biometric mismatch. During April, 2020, while  the lockdown was in effect and vulnerable populations tried to access their cash benefits, cash withdrawal transactions through the Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AePS) were as high as 403 million, which was almost double the transactions in the previous months. 

In line with this increase, the rate at which transactions failed in AePS was 39%. The main reason for such failures was a mismatch in biometric data. With limited to no exception handling procedures in place, this high rate of failure translated to millions of distressed and disadvantaged citizens who failed to withdraw cash. Instances of fingerprint authentication failure in the PDS, the most extensive government program to use Aadhaar, have also been reported for a long time. 

In this context, this blog examines the constraints that arise from the deployment of just one contact-based biometric authentication technology to avail government benefits. It also identifies contactless technologies to mitigate some of the challenges associated with fingerprint authentication.

The adoption of contactless biometric technology

Iris and facial recognition are two viable alternatives to fingerprint authentication that offer the highest level of security, that is, validation of who you are, which characterizes India’s biometric authentication process. The table below benchmarks, these authentication technologies across various observable parameters:

Fingerprint matching technology is accurate and has proven to be highly scalable. However, it struggles to read damaged prints and requires users to physically place their fingers on a surface, a risky proposition during a global pandemic.

Iris recognition has the advantage of high-speed authentication, is highly accurate and mature, and relies on scanning the iris, which is less prone to degradation over time than one’s fingerprints, as with the case of the elderly or those engaged in heavy manual labor. However, successful usage depends on user training as the devices require specific positioning of the iris. Success also depends on robust internet connectivity, as the data packet transmitted to the Aadhaar central repository for authentication is much larger than that of the fingerprint-based system. 

Another feasible contactless technology is facial recognition technology (FRT), which relies on consistent facial features despite aging or surgery or both. This biometric technology is affordable and widely available as part of multifunctional devices and across form factors, making it cost-effective and potentially scalable. Globally, law enforcement agencies dominate the use-cases for FRT. Yet more recently, India has utilized FRT for digital ID authentication. 

In the past, the country was conservative in its adoption of FRT for ID authentication owing to concerns around privacy and existing investments in fingerprint and iris scanners. However, the tide seems to be turning, in part due to studies that have shown the effectiveness of facial identification. In August 2018, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) formally included FRT as an option for Aadhaar authentication. Sector experts have been deliberating about the potential to identify and track COVID-19-positive Indian citizens using Aadhaar-integrated cameras equipped with thermal scanners. UIDAI currently holds images and contact details for approximately 1.23 billion people which can be leveraged after assessing the quality of images captured. 

FRT case study: Bangladesh

In October 2019, Bangladesh conducted its first Electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) pilot. Rather than relying solely on the current practice of four-finger biometric authentication, the government opted to try its home-grown FRT created by Giga Tech Ltd. Of the total 19 banks participating in the pilot, approximately half were assigned fingerprint authentication technology, while the remainder received FRT. Bank employees and agents confirmed the relative ease of using camera phones or tablets to capture beneficiaries’ photos and complete the e-KYC process. Although fingerprint authentication was more readily adopted due to familiarity with the technology, FRT was found to be an efficient contactless technology on par with fingerprint technology. Despite the pilot’s short-term nature, MSC’s analysis suggests that standardizing the biometric devices in terms of hardware and software specifications, issuing detailed FRT instructions, and delivering training sessions would make FRT a leading contender in e-KYC systems. 

Let us consider equipping the PDS with alternate technologies—iris or FRT—in addition to the existing fingerprint-based ePoS. Equipping all the fair price shops (FPS) in India with an iris scanner that can be integrated with the existing ePoS will cost USD 60-163 million. For FRT, this cost will be around USD 54 million if a phone or device is also provided to all FPSs. However, the cost would be negligible if the dealers already possess a smartphone and only an agnostic software application needs to be developed. 

Adopting other exception management protocols 

Besides adopting a nascent technology such as FRT, it is also possible to work within the confines of existing authentication infrastructure to ensure the safety of India’s citizens while limiting exclusions. Such approaches entail the active use of exception management protocols, such as one-time passwords (OTP). This is already part of the protocol for PDS. During the lockdown, PDS dealers in Rajasthan and Karnataka conducted exception handling through OTPs. 

As per the Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report as of June 2020, India’s average teledensity was 85.85%, with urban and rural teledensity at 137.35% and 58.96%, respectively. Such widespread mobile penetration makes OTP-based ID authentication feasible, safe, and cost-effective. Moreover, citizens with an Aadhaar card are encouraged to register their mobile numbers to avail different services. Therefore, mobile numbers are already linked to Aadhaar cards, and no additional effort or data collection is required to use this exception management mechanism. 

Requesting and using an OTP ensures a satisfactory level of contactless identity authentication and reduces exclusions due to worn fingerprints or interrupted service, resulting in a smooth flow of benefits. However, the challenge in this method is that the most vulnerable populations still might not have access to a phone or may change their numbers frequently. 

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen the beneficiaries of the government’s welfare programs either being increasingly excluded or inconvenienced due to the reliance on a single mode of authentication. Biometric-based ID solutions were rolled out, in part, to address such exclusions. However, the contact-based nature of fingerprint technology potentially creates additional health risks for millions of vulnerable people. 

The solution may not lie in phasing out or eliminating fingerprint authentication but in providing      safer, contactless, and alternative verification options using different technologies. This would ultimately avoid exclusions and ideally eliminate them. Currently, exception handling technologies are sparse, and their usage sporadic. For example, in PDS delivery, only eight states have reported Aadhaar authentication using iris scanners. In the case of banking services, alternate technologies are limited to small-scale pilots. 

The newer technologies we covered in this blog have the potential to coexist as robust alternative methods of identity verification to not only assure beneficiary safety but ensure the delivery of benefits. Deploying alternative technologies should be done after considering factors like areas with higher rates of failure, network and server issues, and last-mile service providers’ ability to afford and operate the devices. The government can adopt a phased approach to test the technology after running pilots to ensure that the transition is smooth and sustainable. It has become critical to strike a balance between identifying the recipient accurately, preventing pilferage and delivering government benefits without interruptions. Innovation in the area of authentication technology will be a meaningful step toward achieving this symbiosis.

A Silver Lining During the Pandemic: Three Financial Inclusion Success Stories in the Age of COVID-19

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This blog talks about the Financial Inclusion Lab accelerator program, which is supported by some of the largest philanthropic organizations across the world – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, J.P. Morgan, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, MetLife Foundation and Omidyar Network.

COVID-19 has given us all so many hardships over the past few months, while dramatically impacting businesses across practically all sectors. When it comes to financial inclusion specifically, the pandemic has sparked widespread talk about a widening digital divide, rising inequality in gender inclusivity, growing skepticism over informal financial practices, and concerns about overlooking financially vulnerable customer segments.

However, the crisis has also generated ongoing inspirational stories about a few Davids who are fighting and winning their battles against these Goliath-sized problems, one blow at a time.

In this article, we hope to draw your attention to three of these success stories.

Boosting gender inclusion

Data, digitalization and business acumen, if used the right way, can lead to incredible results for gender inclusion.

One such case involves one of MSC’s Financial Inclusion Lab startups, Frontier Markets, which has done commendable work to address the pandemic’s impact on vulnerable women.

Frontier Markets empowers rural women to become entrepreneurs. It is building a last-mile distribution network through these women entrepreneurs, whom it calls “Saral Jeevan Sahelis” or “Easy Life Friends” (in Hindi, saheli means a woman friend). Through this network, it delivers world class products/solutions, such as Samsung refrigerators and Philips solar lighting systems, to the remotest households in rural India.

Until a few months ago, most of Frontier Markets’ data was non-digital and scattered across different teams. As a result, these teams were not able to leverage this data to generate holistic benefits for the broader organization.

To address this issue, the Lab and the Frontier Markets teams came together to build an impactful data strategy to increase the productivity of Sahelis, and the results proved to be impressive. We worked together to digitalize and assimilate the disparate data points, cleaning up the data and drawing some useful data models for enhancing the productivity and earnings of the Sahelis, using various machine learning techniques – the usual data science stuff. Leveraging the power of these techniques, we helped the Frontier Markets team build a strong product recommendation engine that mapped each Saheli’s expertise in selling a particular product to the hyperlocal market need for it in her area.

So, what’s so impactful about this, you ask?

Through these data-based product recommendation models, both the number of customers as well as the number of products sold on the platform saw a 4.5x increase in a short period of time. This created a huge impact on the livelihoods of the Sahelis:

  • Average business per Saheli increased by 150%
  • The number of women recruited and trained to become Sahelis grew by more than 3x
  • Sahelis’ income per sale grew by 20-30%

There were also other, more intangible benefits. For instance, more Sahelis talk proudly now about how their social status within their communities has changed positively, and how they have become an inspiration for many other local women.

Changing the trust perception about chit fund companies

Despite their global popularity and widespread benefits to communities that lack formal financial access, rotating savings and credit associations or “chit funds” are sometimes perceived as a dubious activity, because their model may seem to resemble “Ponzi scheme” scams. However, chit funds are actually one of the most effective informal financial tools. They enable the low and moderate income (LMI) segment to save and borrow through friends, family and other community members, who pool their money together into a common fund, from which each group member can withdraw money in turn.

As seen through the example of Chitmonks, a blockchain-powered chit fund digitalization company described in one of MSC’s 2020 publications, the chit fund sector also has immense potential to boost the formal financial inclusion of chit fund group members – especially if the transaction data of their groups is digitalized. But the biggest roadblock towards building trust in the eyes of both potential chit fund subscribers and financial institutions is their lack of proper auditing. Even for the chit fund companies that are registered with the government, it is very hard for the government regulator to audit the manual record of transactions, which are saved in multiple stacks of papers on a regular basis. It would be akin to auditing the transactions of multiple people belonging to multiple groups (8-10 people per group) across weekly, fortnightly or monthly interactions over decades of time.

To address this concern, the Lab is supporting Chitmonks by building a robust data strategy plan and implementation roadmap that will enable it to:

  • Design data analytics models to identify any possible compliance violations by the chit fund companies it works with (which may include a failure to promptly account for group member transactions, a failure to renew the company’s license, etc.) so they have a chance to rectify the mistakes.
  • Prepare models to evaluate and rate the various chit fund companies that use its platform, based on their compliance records on the blockchain.
  • Create a digital history of chit fund subscribers. This will enable them to obtain loans and other financial services from formal financial institutions at lower interest rates than they would otherwise get.

Through these features, a whole host of issues plaguing the chit fund industry (such as the ones described in our blog on Chitmonks) will be solved.

Inclusive digital marketing for LMI customers

Financial service providers in emerging markets want to reach LMI customers more effectively, and digital marketing offers a popular solution. But one of the biggest problems these providers face in reaching these customers has been their inability to properly leverage digital media. Traditionally, physical marketing has worked best to reach out to this segment. This is because physical marketing is based on word-of-mouth trust building and, in many cases, handholding the customers and training them in how to use the financial solutions the providers are offering.

However, the pandemic has forced a massive change. With lockdowns and restricted mobility, it quickly became impossible to physically reach out to local businesses with product offers – especially those run by LMI entrepreneurs, such as mom-and-pop stores. These limitations rendered many sales teams virtually jobless, as a bulk of their daily activities had consisted of meeting, chatting with and prospecting new customers, then walking them through the processes involved in using their financial solutions.

In response to this challenge, adaptive, agile financial service providers – especially fintech startups like Bridge2Capital – have realized the importance of leveraging digital media to market their solutions to LMI businesses. But they’ve faced the basic question of how to design effective digital marketing campaigns for these customers.

Reaching out to the LMI segment is not a simple copy-paste approach, in which financial service providers can borrow digital marketing ideas used for other, higher-income, more tech-savvy customers. It requires new tactics designed for LMI customers’ unique needs. To support Bridge2Capital’s efforts on that front, the Lab stepped in to help it:

  • Understand the most effective ways of reaching out to this segment in terms of language (vernacular or mixed) and social media channel preference (YouTube, Facebook or WhatsApp messaging).
  • Design core strategies for reaching out to the LMI segment and building brand appeal among these customers.
  • Build an implementation roadmap to engage, sell to and provide empathetic customer care for LMI customers, by closely emulating the in-person sales and marketing behavior that they are traditionally used to.

Although the complete picture with regards to the results of these digital strategies is yet to be seen, the initial indications look promising. Bridge2Capital’s engagement with the LMI segment is growing, and this has much to do with these customers’ changing attitudes and growing affinity towards digitalization since the start of COVID-19. However, even with this new openness to digital approaches, human-centric digitalization remains key.

While COVID-19 has had a disastrous impact on the world’s health, finances and social interactions, it’s good to recognize the silver lining exemplified by the businesses above. If we can take these positive examples and build upon them, even after the pandemic has ended, then the dream of financial inclusion can still be achieved.

The blog was also published on Next Billion on 25th of January, 2021