With service charge imposed on the user in the State’s flagship Karnataka Mobile One project being one of the major reasons for its poor usage, the State government is working towards reducing the charge and introducing more payment gateways in the app.
Sunil Panwar, director of Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services, told The Hindu that the plan is to integrate the app with the BHIM payment system so that people can use the gateway that offers the lowest charges.
Last Saturday, The Hindu reported on the poor usage of the app — just about 0.4% of the 6.57 crore mobile users in the State.
Admitting that the collection of service charge is a concern raised by many users, Mr. Panwar said the fee is not levied by the government. “The banks are collecting the charge and it is the same whether you use our app or any other individual service provider’s payment system. However, we are trying to work on substantially reducing the charges,” he said.
In fact, several Mobile One users have listed this as the reason to not use the app anymore. “I stopped using the app because of the user charges. Using Paytm and [other] similar apps, I can do it for free. The [Karnataka Mobile One] app is also cumbersome as I have to remember the login details and password,” a user said.
Meanwhile, Minister for IT and BT Priyank Kharge said another reason for the app’s declining popularity is that it provides the same kind of services that other utilities offer. “A user is likely to be interested in making direct payment through the service provider’s individual app instead of going through Mobile One,” he said, acknowledging the duplication of services.
Publicity campaign
The technical data analysis undertaken by the Karnataka Evaluation Authority, in association with the Centre for e-Governance, had found a lack of awareness about the app as one of the reasons for its poor usage. The evaluation report recommended a well-defined branding strategy in terms of planning and advertising to popularise the app.
Following this, the government is set to launch an intensified publicity campaign. “We have hired a private agency for the campaign. The app redesign will be done in-house. In the redesigned app, customer experience will be improved. The app, which is a hybrid one now, will be launched as a native app with revamped user interface and experience,” he said.
The evaluation determined the impact of Mobile One in terms of awareness, ease and efficiency. It found that only 33.3% of the 0.4% respondents were aware of the service. Of this, just 7% had the highest level of awareness — an indication that the portal needed publicity.