I always believe while urban India may be the face of India, the heart lies in our villages. We can experience the core of India's culture and life only if we go deep into the rural parts. But, unfortunately, penetration of organized banking and other financial services in these areas is still low, leading to poverty and poor financial inclusion.

And this is where microfinance comes in to play. Our mandate has always been to go deep into rural India, supporting aspiring women entrepreneurs who do not get credit from the traditional banking channels. The last few years, we have driven the agenda of financial inclusion and tried to get everyone to open bank accounts and transact through them.

But the task has not been easy. Digital communication has helped eliminate many of the major challenges of last-mile delivery. However, one should not imagine that digitalization would solve all problems in the last-mile delivery of financial services.

Firstly, let us look at the purchasing power of the population we address. Those who live right at the bottom of the financial pyramid hardly have the excess funds to purchase a smartphone and incur the recurring costs of internet services. While we must admit that the cost of such services has drastically come down, there still are many for whom food and clothing take precedence.

Let us come to education and gender neutrality. Poor women have always been less likely than poor men to have a formal bank account. While the situation of rural India has been improving, we still have a long way to go. Significant barriers remain for poor rural women with low literacy rates to use digital services. Our field force has to do some handholding for these women.

So microfinance companies, which invest in information technology and training to help the women use smartphones, will be an essential conduit in reaching financial services to the remotest rural areas.