As a nation, we tend to over-think things. This is not surprising since we Indians tend to first ask “why” when we are asked to do something. This burning need to know, is in fact our defining national characteristic.

This is not altogether a bad thing. It drove us to map the heavens, invent modern mathematics, devise the world’s first system of medicine and even become the world’s tech support provider.

But sometimes, all this questioning and imagining “what if” scenarios can get in the way of actually doing things. We spend so much time questioning the rationale and logic for every action, and devote so much energy to splitting hair over any number of possible outcomes for any step, that very little get up and go is left over to actually achieve something.

INFRASTRUCTURE PLANS

That is why, for instance, our infrastructure plans remain just that – plans on paper. That is also why, for instance, that the government’s grand plan to “throw open” the doors to billions of dollars of foreign investment in everything from nuclear power plants to supermarkets and groceries have come a cropper. By the time we finish dotting the ‘I’s and crossing the ‘T’s to our satisfaction – or the satisfaction of the myriad interest groups involved in any such step, at any rate – we find that nobody is really interested in walking through those doors.

Sometimes, our nitpicking attention to a zillion details also leads us to miss the significant detail. So we start off with a grand plans to build Special Economic Zones on the lines of China’s mega manufacturing hubs, then get drawn into a hundred and one debates about qualifications and tax treatment and so on, and merrily missed the one significant detail — that of who will acquire the land needed for these SEZs.

By the time we find a solution for this — by dumping the onus back on to SEZ developers — the whole idea of SEZs has lost its sex appeal. At last look, the government had pared down an SEZ from the original mega city to 50 hectares – and is still not finding any takers.

Meanwhile, other, less ‘thoughtful’ nations have been simply going ahead and doing something to solve their problems — and have managed to come up with some amazing, cheap and easy to use solutions — without any of the attendant grief that doing something similar would have entailed in this country.

AFRICA’S STRIDES

Last week, two really interesting developments, both in distant Africa, starkly brought home the difference between what actually looking for solutions can do, as against imagining all the possible problems that could prevent a solution from being delivered, and trying to solve all of them in advance.

Last week, Kenya’s equivalent of the Registrar of Companies in India, the Kenya State Law Office, signed a $ 161,000 (Kenyan Shilling 14 million or less than Rs 1 crore) deal with telecom services provider Safaricom to deliver a mobile solution to anybody who wanted to start a business and needed the mandatory government registration.

Earlier, the registration, which costs about Rs 70, required applicants to personally visit the Law Office in the country’s capital in order to file the application and pay the fee. This, in Kenya, whose physical infrastructure is still rudimentary, meant an agonising journey, and the spending of what often was a daunting sum of money for a poor entrepreneur.

Since, under Kenyan law, every business had to be registered, this itself became an entry barrier, much like the red tape which entangles any entrepreneurial activity in India.

Also, most people ended up using the simpler option of not registering their business – which not only led to lost revenues for the government, but entailed the additional risk of sudden and punitive action by the authorities.

MOBILE PHONE RAGE

Now, the deal will provide Kenyans the opportunity to start registering businesses, conduct name searches and pay the attendant fees over their handsets, thus saving them overhead registration cost and time, while speeding up the legalisation of businesses process, Business Daily reported.

Around the same time, Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank (GT Bank), which also happens to be the single largest Nigerian brand on Facebook with more than 1.3 million fans, offered customers the option to start a bank account online through Facebook – without ever having to visit a branch!

All that people have to do while on Facebook is fill the account opening form, upload their passport photograph and signature mandate and immediately get their account number.

This, according to the bank, was part of its social banking offering pioneered by GT Bank, that allows people open GT Bank Accounts, make account balance enquiries, perform money transfers and purchase airtime, all on Facebook!

These are just some of the examples of the way simple, realistic and cost effective solutions are revolutionising Africa.

“The mobile phone,” says Jeffrey Sachs, “is the single most transformational tool for development in Africa.” The mobile pay and go solution is transforming not just the way business is done, but the way people lead their lives in what are still some of the poorest countries on earth.

According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Kenyans using M-Pesa, a mobile phone-based money payments service, undertook more transactions in three years than the total number of worldwide remittance transfers recorded by the global money transfer agency Western Union! Mobile phones are used to pay for everything from groceries and cab rides to farm supplies and even pay wages.

Africa now has more mobile phone subscribers than the US, and Kenya is the world leader in mobile money transactions. Analysts even say that Africa will become the world’s first “post-PC” region, with countries like Botswana and Gabon already having a mobile penetration of more than 100 per cent.

According to The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), an estimated 1.7 billion people had mobile phones in the developing world in 2012 — but no bank accounts.

India is no different. With more than 650 million mobile connections, penetration among adult populations — even in rural areas — is high. But while the government continues its breast-beating about financial inclusion, and thinks through complicated solutions to deliver access to financial services and direct transfer of benefits to the poor — including the creation of a gigantic ‘Big Brother’ Unique ID Authority, and several new banks — smaller, vastly poorer and less developed nations have already gone ahead and found a solution which works.

It’s time to stop thinking and start doing.

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