SBI Further Empowers Farmers with YONO Krishi; Introduces Kisan Credit Card Review on the Platform

Kisan Credit Card (KCC) 

* Bank introduces KCC Review feature on the YONO Krishi platform which has been witnessing great response from farmers

* YONO KCC Review to enable farmers access their KCC limit on YONO in just four clicks

* YONO KCC Review to benefit more than 75 lakh farmers

* YONO KCC review will empower farmers to embrace digital technology and make them future-ready

* YONO Krishi platform offers a one-stop solution to all farmers’ agricultural needs

Country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) continues to empower its farmer customers by offering them technology backed agricultural solutions with YONO Krishi. The recently launched platform that caters to all the requirements of farmers – from sowing to harvesting and then selling – has been receiving significant traction from the farmers. In the current unprecedented times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SBI is set to make lives easier for its farmer customers by introducing the KCC Review option on YONO Krishi. With this added feature, farmers will no longer need to travel the distance to visit the bank branch to apply for a revision in their KCC limit. KCC Review option on YONO Krishi will help farmers apply for the same in just 4 clicks from the comfort of their homes without any paperwork.

Recognizing the fact that not all farmers may have access to smartphones, SBI has also streamlined the KCC review process at its branches. KCC Review on YONO Krishi is expected to benefit more than 75 lakh farmers having KCC accounts with SBI. The feature of paperless KCC review will not only help farmers save costs and effort involved in applying for revision of the KCC limit, but also make the process quicker for them especially during the harvesting season.

Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, SBI said, “Introduction of YONO KCC Review on YONO Krishi is SBI’s yet another initiative to make our farmer customers, future-ready by offering them constant digital innovations pertaining to their agricultural needs. This new feature has been added keeping in mind millions of our valuable farmer customers’ convenience and safety. We believe that they will now be experiencing hassle-free application process for their KCC limit revision. With a Digital-First approach, it is SBI’s continuous endeavor to provide innovative digital banking solutions to all our diverse set of customers across the country.”

Apart from KCC Review, the multi-lingual YONO Krishi platform - which is bringing-in technology to farmers in more than 10 vernacular languages - is offering services such as YONO Khata, YONO Bachat, YONO Mitra and YONO Mandi to its farmer customers. These unique offerings facilitate farmers with Agri loan products, an online marketplace to buy and rent agricultural inputs and equipment, customized farming advisory, investment, and crop insurance products, instant agri gold loan, upgrade to scientific farming practices, and much more. With YONO Krishi, SBI has opened the doors of digital agriculture to farmers. In just one year of its launch, YONO Krishi has disbursed more than 14 lakh Agri Gold loans and has seen more than 15 lakh clicks on YONO Mandi and YONO Mitra

YONO itself has grown by leaps and bounds over the last two and a half years since its launch. It has seen more than 58 million downloads with over 26 million registered users. YONO has partnered with over 80 e-commerce players in more than 20 categories. The bank’s flagship banking and lifestyle platform – YONO is also tasting success in international markets such as the UK and Mauritius.

$13 Billion by 2013; Can Indian mobile reach this milestone?

The Compound Annual growth rate (CAGR) of the Indian mobile market is projected to grow at 12.5 percent from 2009-2013 and will exceed by $30 billion. According to Gartner, the India mobile subscriber base will cross around 771 million connections by 2013 and will grow at a CAGR of 14.3 percent in the same period from 452 million in 2009. India is also expected to become 2nd largest mobile consumer market after China.

"The Indian mobile industry has now moved out of its hyper growth mode, but it will continue to grow at double-digit rates for next three years as operators focus on rural parts of the country, growth will also be triggered by increased adoption of value-added services, which are relevant to both rural and urban markets," said Madhusudan Gupta, Senior Research Analyst, Gartner.

The mobile market incursion is projected to increase from 38.7 percent in 2009 to 63. 5 percent in the year 2013.

This growth is primarily because of the operators increasing their focus on the rural market, local consumer durable and electronic companies entering the domestic mobile handset segment, and lower handset prices, Gartner said.

Prepaid subscribers continue to be dominating the Indian mobile connection market. They accounted for more than 93 percent of all mobile connections in 2008 and are expected to grow to more than 96 percent of the connection base by 2013, surpassing 741 million connections versus 312 million in 2008.

The postpaid subscriber base will exceed 29 million subscribers by 2013; grow at 2.5 percent from 23 million in 2008.

The churn rate in India is 53.2 percent in 2009, and despite a maturing market, the ratio is expected to increase to 59.6 percent in 2013.

The overall growth of mobile services in India will be significantly contributed by revenue from data services, with a CAGR of 16.8 percent from 2009 to 2013. Prepaid subscribers are expected to adopt data services faster and more than the post-paid segment. The bulk of revenue will continue to come from voice services.

With the increased growth in data services, the percentage of revenue coming from voice will reduce from 89 percent in 2008 to 86 percent in 2013.

Gartner predicts that a significant drop in Average Revenue per User (ARPU), as the bulk of new subscribers will come from rural areas that are dominated by prepaid subscribers.

With the new operators joining the market, the voice tariffs will decline substantially in 2009. Growth will be triggered by increased adoption of value-added services, which are relevant to both rural and urban markets.

Agencies