| |July 20208omen in rural India have arrived. They have broken many a myth. They are assertive, empowered, as-piring and increasingly financially independent. The rural millennial woman will buy the best that her money can buy, will make an independent choice, and most likely, will buy a brand that is trusted. This is the new psychographic of the rural woman.Over the last two years, there has been a phenom-enal transformation in the way this segment has embraced the internet. Affordable smartphones and cheap connectivity has transformed the way they connect and relate with the world. Telecom compa-nies were in for a surprise more than a decade back when rural people saw great value in basic mobile telephony and returned huge subscriptions. History repeats with 4G subscriptions in rural India. Not surprising, while in the former, getting connected enhanced `liveli-hood', the latter enhanced `quality of life'. Information asymmetry, knowledge assimilation, enter-tainment needs, and social net-working are all getting addressed. It is therefore not surprising that marketers have made a beeline to exploit the increasing `on-screen' time of the rural women.MFIs have been cross-selling products to customers for over a decade now. What started as offering access to brands having rural-cen-tric products has now evolved into an important line of business. How-ever, with time, fatigue has set in, as all players offer similar products and customers have expert opinionWSCOPE OF MOBILE APP IN THE AGE OF SHIFTING CUSTOMER GOALPOSTS IN THE MICROFINANCE SECTORBy Harshavardan Patnaik, Senior VP - Central Operations & Alliances, Arohan Financial Services Harshavardan Patnaik
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