Now, get ready to send money through your mobile phone

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.Ramesh - a migrant from Kerala who works in Dubai - will soon be able to use his mobile to transfer money to his wife. All he would need is to 'top up' his mobile phone with money - the way he currently operates his prepaid account - and SMS the amount to his wife's mobile. She, in turn, would receive a number (similar to a PIN) and be able to redeem this for cash at any prepaid distribution point of her mobile service provider. Banking regulations in India currently do not allow cash for exchange of another 'unit' such as 'airtime' in the case of mobiles. Only banks and the Indian Post (through money orders) are currently allowed such transfers. "We expect India, as one of the biggest recipients of remittances, to be among the first countries to benefit from mobile money transfer services," a GSM Association (GSMA) spokesperson said. Bharti Airtel has already tied up with SBI for mobile remittance, and is pilot testing it at a few villages in India (one such project is in a small Himalayan town of Pithoragarh in India). Vodafone too has tied up with Citibank towards the same end. The regulatory hurdle apart, the mobile money transfer opportunity is huge. India has over 200 million mobile subscribers, a little over 300 million savings account holders but slightly over 70,000 bank branches.