Welcome to the Future - Automated Living with the Internet of Things

Posted On Wednesday, Oct 21, 2015

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Imagine this scenario.

You get up from your desk and prepare to leave your office at 8pm after a hard day’s work, as the door is about to automatically shut behind you, you say “wrap up”, the lights in your cabin shut, the system you use goes into ‘sleep’ mode, your mobile gets more ‘active’ to receive emails from office.

As soon as you step out of the lobby, your driverless car glides in and the door opens to pick you up. You reach home and say ‘dinner’.. Automatically microwave gets activated with the food plate inside, the lights and AC in the dining room go brighter… Say ‘sleep’ the TV and all lights go off, the AC turns to a comfortable 22°C, all doors and windows lock automatically, and the burglar alarm gets activated…. And you haven’t even pressed a button.

This is not 2050, this is now.

With the advent of the ‘internet of things’ and tech giants like Google and Apple looking to move quickly on these initiatives, the above para will sound increasingly mundane rather than a technological wow.

Technology is changing the way we live, big time. It is changing the way we buy, big time. It is changing the way we invest…. Not so big time, at least in India. There are a few reasons for the same.

1.Not broken? Don’t fix it
 That is the attitude many seem to have at least as far as investments and the way the Indian financial industry reaches out to customers. The fraternity is very happy to continue with the age old method of employing agents to source clients. The Direct to investor model is yet to gain traction. With the advent of technology and increase in internet bandwidth and penetration numbers across the country (number of people using the internet in India is already higher than the entire population of Brazil!) this ‘completely electronic’ mode of investing will become the need of the hour.
2.Dependency on the Agent
 Life insurance policies to travel to Mutual Funds, everything we buy, today – is reliant on the agent. And why not since he fills up all the forms for you, all you need to do is sign the dotted line.... Life is easy, right? Not necessarily, how do you know that the fund recommended to you, on whose application form you are putting your sign so blindly is actually good for you?

Do a little a bit of homework and log on to a website which allows you to buy completely online, no hassles of paperwork, of downloading forms, signing and re-uploading… sounds far fetched? It actually isn’t and is happening today.
3.Identifying yourself – multiple times
 Buy an insurance policy, do your KYC, buying a mutual fund – do it again; opening a bank account - do it a third time – the list is endless. What is this KYC? Why can’t an investor do his/her KYC at one place and all other financial entities look that up instead of me filling up forms and then visiting the branch so that people know I exist!!! Wonderful questions, dear investor. But this is how the investment formalities machine rolls on. One wonders if all the paperwork required by the financial industry is reduced, maybe we can save the forests and the trees from torn down and save the investor from tearing his/her hair apart trying to figure out various formalities.


Fortunately we are not the only ones wondering this. The Government of India and various financial regulatory bodies is increasingly planning and executing a better digital footprint for India, which should go a long way towards going ‘e’.

Many financial institutions, (including your own fund house, in its own way) have started innovating in this space. From sending selfies to open bank accounts to using the camera attached to your laptop are just some of the e-initiatives one hears of. To do an E-IPV, instead of you going to the fund house – by the way is another Quantum first!

Quantum has always believed that technology will also change the way we invest – to this end we came up with the first completely paperless online investment process, such that first time investors can invest from the comfort of their home, without having to fill in papers, or relying on agents for signatures.

Continued innovation has led us to launch the E-KYC facility last week. So if you are a Resident Indian, all you need to do is log on to https://ekyc.quantumamc.com and fill up a simple form – online. No paperwork etc, no uploads. We verify your data and inform you about the time for the E-IPV and once that is done, the KRA will come back to you on the status of your KYC; you are sorted at least as far as mutual fund investments go, without leaving your chair.

With the Government too taking an active interest, technology and the digital boom that we see – is here to stay and in fact go deeper. Many people across India are experiencing their first taste of the internet on their phones and this digital revolution is likely to go places. Banks, Fund houses, insurance companies and other financial institutions will have to stay ahead of this curve and innovate constantly – so that financial inclusion in India doesn’t remain a distant dream, but an achievable reality.




Disclaimer, Statutory Details & Risk Factors:


The views expressed here in this article / video are for general information and reading purpose only and do not constitute any guidelines and recommendations on any course of action to be followed by the reader. Quantum AMC / Quantum Mutual Fund is not guaranteeing / offering / communicating any indicative yield on investments made in the scheme(s). The views are not meant to serve as a professional guide / investment advice / intended to be an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial product or instrument or mutual fund units for the reader. The article has been prepared on the basis of publicly available information, internally developed data and other sources believed to be reliable. Whilst no action has been solicited based upon the information provided herein, due care has been taken to ensure that the facts are accurate and views given are fair and reasonable as on date. Readers of this article should rely on information/data arising out of their own investigations and advised to seek independent professional advice and arrive at an informed decision before making any investments. Please visit – www.quantumamc.com/disclaimer to read scheme specific risk factors.

Above article is authored by Quantum.

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