India has more mobile phones than toilets

Far more people in India have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet, according to a UN study on sanitation.

A sadhu uses a mobile phone during Maha Kumbh Mela at Prayag in Allahabad Photo: EPA

India's mobile subscribers totalled 563.73 million at the last count, enough to serve nearly half of the country's 1.2 billion population.
But just 366 million people - around a third of the population - had access to proper sanitation in 2008, said the study published by the United Nations University, a UN think-tank.

"It is a tragic irony to think in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones," so many people "cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," said Zafar Adeel, the UN University director.
Mr Adeel heads the UN University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health, based in the Canadian city of Hamilton, which prepared the report.
Worldwide, an estimated $358 billion (£230 billion) is needed between now and 2015 to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people with inadequate sanitation from 2000 levels.
Proper sanitation "could do more to save lives, especially those of young people, improve health and help pull India and other countries in similar circumstances out of poverty than any alternative investment," Mr Adeel said.
Poor sanitation is a major contributor to water-borne diseases, which in the past three years alone killed an estimated 4.5 million children under the age of five worldwide, according to the study.
The report gave a rough cost of $300 to build a toilet, including labour, materials and advice.
The world could expect a return of up to $34 for every dollar spent on sanitation through improved productivity and reduced poverty and health costs, said Adeel.
He said improving sanitation was "an economic and humanitarian opportunity of historic proportions."

Robi Polli-Shining light upon Bangladesh

Leading telecommunications solution provider Robi Wednesday lit up ten remote villages across the country with solar power. Undertaken as part of the CSR initiative of the company, the programme coincided with the heralding of the Bengali New Year.

The villages are Tamaruddi of Nowakhali, Bachamara of Manikganj, Pachuria of Gopalganj, Protapnagar of Shatkhira, Charjanajat of Madaripur, Motherbunia of Patuakhali, Chaitar Khamar of Kurigram, Char Neuton of Bhola, Padma of Barguna and Pirganj of Jadabpur. These villages will be known as Robi Palli.

This initiative was kicked off by Chief Marketing Officer of Robi, Mr. Bidyut Kumar Basu when he lightened up a house in a remote village of Amtoli.

To facilitate development of Bangladesh's rural people, Robi is initiating a project to reach 500 homes in 50 hard-to-reach villages all over the country. Each of these 500 rural households will be provided with 20WP solar panels by May this year. This will help the power starved villagers with light at night and enable them perform personal, social and economic activity. This project will be technically supported by Rural Service Foundation (RSF).

Chief Marketing Officer of Robi, Mr. Bidyut Kumar Basu said: We respect our local tradition, yet march ahead with innovation and creativity. According to the Ministry of Power 53% of Bangladesh is still in need of power supply, it is also a country that is blessed with abundant solar energy, which can provide a clean solution to this shortage.

Any modern society and economy requires uninterrupted supply of electricity for development and prosperity. In fact, "per capita electricity consumption" is an important economic indicator that measures a country's level of development. Yet, Bangladesh's the largest environmental challenge today is to provide clean energy and reduce carbon emission. In Bangladesh Wind and hydro electricity opportunities are limited. But solar energy is abundant and could be a tangible solution. Robi will be working closely to ensure that the farthest corners of the country are also facilitated with electricity sourced from solar energy.

Sania Mahmood, Head of Marketing, Mohiuddin Babar, Head of Communication and Media Relation along with other officials of Robi were also present at the event.

Robi, the brand, aims to radiate the spirit of life and energy in its every activity throughout the country. That is why Robi wants to work towards building Bangladesh illuminated by the power of the sun and work towards a brighter future.

Robi is also involved with different corporate social activities. As part of these activities, Robi has taken care of all medical fees related to the birth of those children born at Marie Stopes clinic across Bangladesh on 28th March, 2010 and their mothers.

Encashing mobile remittance

Amzad Hossain has been working for a construction firm in Dubai for the last six years. He has to send money home on a regular basis, as he is the only earning member in his family. Each time Amzad has to go through a lot of hurdles to send money to his aged father in a remote village in Bangladesh.
There are no money transfer agencies near his village and so he hardly uses banks or agencies. Most of the time he has to rely on migrant workers like him, who is travelling home, which is quite rare, and sometimes by other means that he cannot rely on much. It takes minimum four to five days for the money to reach his family if he uses banks or agencies, and sometimes more. Like Amzad, there are many migrant workers who face the same problem. But now it can all be done in just a day or a few minutes.
In a revolutionary step on April 13, mobile remittance service or mRemittance was introduced in the country, opening doors to millions of migrant workers to help transfer their hard-earned money easily, effectively and most importantly, swiftly.
The first ever mRemittance service for Bangladesh was jointly launched by two local banks -- Dhaka Bank Ltd and Eastern Bank Ltd -- and the country's second largest mobile operator, Banglalink.
It is a complete mobile cross-border person-to-person payments solution that supports all mobile transactions conducted by mobile phone, such as money transfers, microfinance, account balance inquiries and recent transactions.
But in this case the scenario is a bit different. The process for the sender or the person who initiates the transfer will more or less the same, but the delivery method will be faster than ever.
Mobile remittance creates cross-boarder mobile money transfer services for efficient international mobile money transfer scenarios for both senders and beneficiaries. An open remittance hub connects sending and receiving money channels on a single platform, rather than through bilateral agreements.
The process is pretty simple. This service allows expatriates to deposit money with partnering banks and specifies the subscriber in Bangladesh who is to receive the money. The service sends a text message to the recipients, notifying them that the money has been transferred. The recipients can cash from any Banglalink remittance point by showing their mobile phone (with an SMS) and a form of personal identification.
The banks will use Banglalink as distribution network. The remitters will follow the existing process to send money home, while the recipients will get the money from Banglalink's registered cash points or remittance points free of cost.
The service will work through a “bank-led” model and the banks will offer 'mobile wallet' accounts to the mass through Banglalink and will ensure that the business process is in line with the financial regulations of the country.
They will also act as the cash custodian for mobile wallet users. Banglalink will be the information carrier and platform manager along with ensuring cash point rollout and connectivity.
Through this service, the banks will use Banglalink's payment management platform and communication network to introduce a highly secured, convenient, reliable, fast and cost-effective remittance system. Banglalink distribution outlets will be used as remittance disbursement cash points for the remittances sourced by the banks. The service will be initially launched in Dhaka and will be available nationwide within a month.
The beneficiaries who have Banglalink connections will be able to open mobile wallet accounts either at Dhaka Bank or Eastern Bank from selected Banglalink mobile remittance points by submitting necessary identity documents and account opening forms. Mobile wallet account holders can receive the remittance directly in their mobile wallet account created with the banks. Once the wallet account is credited, the account holders can receive partial or full disbursement from the cash points.
If the beneficiaries do not have Banglalink mobile connections, they can still receive the remittance from overseas by receiving a secured and unique transaction reference number, which is forwarded to them by the sender. In that case, the beneficiaries will have to go to the cash points with proof of identification and request for the disbursement by submitting the transaction reference number, the exact amount and the bank name. The beneficiaries can receive remittance disbursement from any of the designated Banglalink remittance points soon to be rolled out all over the country.
More or less similar mobile remittance services introduced by the Philippines' operators in recent years have proven highly successful for all the parties concerned: the operators are taking commissions on cash transfers, while the expatriate Filipinos are sending money home faster, more cheaply, and more securely than ever before.
Solaiman Alam, head of Public Relations, Communication and Mobile Financial Services of Banglalink said: "Mobile remittance service puts Bangladesh on the world map as a pioneer in mobile banking services. The service will be rolled out soon.”
“This gives Bangladesh the same platform to compete with any world standard of banking technology. It is the first of its kind and is specifically designed to bring the benefit of formal banking to the rural mass."