ABSTRACT
C. K. Prahalad in his book—“The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” 2004—stated that the world has an abundance of poorest people and the market catering to them can be characterized as one of the fastest growing markets having untapped buying power. His suggestions were well appreciated and people even called him a “business prophet.” Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, also commented that the book can be said to be a blueprint for earning profits and reduction of poverty. In emerging markets like India, the majority of the population resides in rural areas and falls under the section of the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). Indian market has low-income consumers who are price sensitive. Companies in the past have targeted the consumers at the BoP and have gained popularity and success. For instance, the recent success of Patanjali products targeting consumers at the BoP has proved that profits can be made even with low price and focus on volumes. After demonetization in India, consumers across India including consumers of BoP are 362increasingly adopting mobile wallets and online payment gateways. To ride over the challenges of cashless transactions, government has taken several initiatives such as opening bank accounts (Jan Dhan Yojana), facilitating free online transactions by waving off service taxes, rebate on the usage of debit cards, incentive schemes for small traders and rural consumers such as Digi-dhan Vyapar Yojana, as a part of Digital Business Policy, and lucky draw for the online users. Thus, the main objective of this chapter is to understand the role of mobile payment and transactions as one of the mode of m-commerce and how this is related to the consumers lying in the BoP of India. That is, in this chapter, the role of mobile and mobile-enabled services related to m-commerce and the consumers of BoP are discussed. Hurdles and benefits of m-commerce in the BoP market of India are also covered.
