Mobile Commerce refers to wireless electronic commerce used for conducting commerce or business through a handy device like

cellular phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDAs). It is also said that it is the next generation wireless e-commerce that needs no wire and plug-in devices. Mobile commerce is usually called as 'm-Commerce' in which user can do any sort of transaction including buying and selling of the goods, asking any services, transferring the ownership or rights, transacting and transferring the money by accessing wireless internet service on the mobile handset itself. The next generation of commerce would most probably be mobile commerce or m-commerce Presuming its wide potential reach all major mobile handset manufacturing companies are making WAP enabled smart phones and providing the maximum wireless internet and web facilities covering personal, official and commerce requirement to pave the way of m-commerce that would later be very fruitful for them.

Advantage of m-Commerce
M-commerce has several major advantages over its fixed counterparts because of its specific inbuilt characteristics such as ubiquity, personalization, flexibility, and distribution, mobile commerce promises exceptional business market potential, greater efficiency and higher fruitfulness. Thus it is not surprising that mobile commerce is emerging much faster than its fixed counterpart. M-commerce is more personalized than e-commerce and thus needs a gentle approach to appraise m-commerce applications.

History of m-commerce
Despite of huge popularity of mobile commerce, it is yet in the initial stage and can be further expand in to all the fields, which affect the human life. The assumption of mobile commerce is not so young as it mushroomed so early from adopting this technology. It initially begins with the use of wireless POS (Point Of Sale) swipe terminals and has since then made its way into cellular phones and PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants). The first enabling m-commerce technologies were presented through Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and i-mode mobile Internet service. WAP builds on digital phone technology and first emerged on 2.5 G phone technology that allowed users to browse th Internet. This technology cemented the way of m-commerce, which has strongly developed on 3Gphone technology. Nokia has first introduced m-commerce application software Nokia toolkit version 4.0bg The future of m-Commerce seems extremely bright because several experiments are going on to introduce the upgraded version of mobile likely to emerged with the evolution of 4G mobile technology. Current m-commerce Services in India: Business and public sectors like banks, financial institutions, and telecommunications are trying to utilize the increase in the number of cell phone users and are integrating m-commerce strategies. At present some m-commerce services are available in India and some are in pilot run. Most leading Indian banks offer SMS based information services and mobile banking services. In addition, several

mobile service providers in partnership with banks are offering mCheck services for bill payments and ticket payments through mobile. mChek links mobile phone to Visa/ Mastercard credit or debit card allowing to make payments th rough mobile phone. RBI has set the maximum mobile payment limit to Rs 50000. Airtel is the first Service provider to get semi closed mobile wallet license and it operates under the banner airtel money. It is an account on mobile phone where one can deposit and use this balance to pay for various products and services. Reliance also offers similar service. Itzcash card Ltd which is Indias largest non- bank semi-closed prepaid payment instrument issuer is also licensed to offer m-wallet services. Recently, the e-commerce giant e-Bay has started its m-commerce operations in India and launched a new website for its m-commerce services. An open wallet system like Kenyan M-Pesa, which may fuel rapid growth, is not introduced in India till now.

Areas / Uses of m-commerce

In the current commerce industry, mobile commerce or M-Commerce has been entered in finance, services, retails, tele-communication and information technology services. In these sectors, MCommerce is not only being widely accepted but also it is being more used as a popular way of business/ commerce.

Finance Sectors
Mobile Commerce works vastly in finance sector including all big and major financial institutes, banks, stock market and share brokers. Whenever any user needs money or wants any sort of banking and finance related services, he/she can access the services or register services via voice calling or via Short Message Services (SMS) services. WAP based mobile handsets allow the user to access the official website of the institute. User can transact money or transfer money, or pay the bill from its bank account using mobile commerce facilities. Banks also provide round the clock customer care services, which can be used any time through voice calling. Some customer care services are also provides non-voice services on mobile that is known as insta-alert facility. While in the stock market, the user can access the stock market quotes and get in live touch with current trading status on its mobile in two forms either voice (customer assistance) or non-voice (sms alerts) or both. The share broker sends market trends and tips of trading on their clients' mobile. Also broker can suggest the appropriate stock for intra-day trading to their users

Telecommunication Sectors
Mobile has played a giant role in communication technology through its versatility and superiority. The ubiquity and easy usage has further made it extremely popular across the globe. It has already surpassed the fixed phone in the world. Software platform is essential for operating any mobile and this tool has revolutionized the communication world because of its functioning as a small computer. The booming popularity has forced the corporate world to develop a new commerce platform that can reach to masses. Mobile commerce has attracted massive traffic because of its unique characteristics.

The user can change the service of any financial institute or banks if gets better product and service or user is unsatisfied with the service of the subscribing company. Besides this several bills can be paid using mobile and user can also check the available balance, the status of cheques, the status of requested processing and customer care support. Several dealings can be handled through mobile phones. Service / Retail sectors Service and Retail sectors are also among the leading sectors, which have nurtured most from mobile commerce. M-Commerce has proved a major boon for these sectors. Several business dealings no matter how big or small are being finalized on the mobile phone. Customer would be able to book the order, can hire carrier/courier services and above all could also pay the dues related to it through mobile. Information Sector After the bursting of dotcom bubble, e-commerce has gone downwards to hell. But the evolution of mobile commerce has again worked as ambrosia for them. A separate sector has been evolved to exercise on this field for the IT experts. The webmasters have skilfully exploited this new area of ITenabled commerce. In the IT field, mobile commerce has been used massively to deliver financial news, stock updates, sports figures and traffic updates and many more onto a single handheld device 'mobile'.

M-commerce- A driver for financial inclusion in India:

Mobile phones have transformed to be an inclusive part of peoples life. The number of Indians who use mobile phones is greater than who have access to toilets and banking services. The total number of wireless subscribers in rural areas stood at 307 million 2011 which constitutes 34 percent of the total subscribers. Taking advantage of this scenario, m-commerce can be used a catalyst for driving financial inclusion. Indian financial institutions are struggling to set up the requisite infrastructure to serve all regions equally. Though this is a significant challenge, it provides potential opportunity. Many countries in developing nations across the world from Africa to Eastern Europe have adopted mobile banking gateways, and have seen great success. For example, M-PESA in Kenya which has been cited as a driver for the doubling of bank accounts from 6 million to 12 million in a year. M-PESA shows that mobile remittances (P2P Payments) have the potential to act as gateways to the banking system for the unbanked and the under-banked segments, which make up a huge segment of the Indian population. Recognizing the importance of this mode, Reserve Bank of India issued the guidelines for Mobile banking and m-Commerce services in India.

Current implementation of M-Commerce initiatives Global examples prove the power of the mobile phone to deliver multiple Mobile Value Added Services in the M-Commerce space. Services in M-Commerce span the entire spectrum of Information, Application, and Enablement:

Service Category

Service

Examples Most banks in India including SBI, ICICI, Standard Chartered, HSBC, etc offer banking alerts on mobile phones via SMS including deposits, cheque clearance and withdrawals Business news channels such as NDTV profit, CNBC have applications that offer stock updates and market news to users in India

Mobile Banking Alerts Information Information services such as Stock Quotes

Application

Enablement

Eazzy 24/7 is the mobile banking service of Equity Bank Mobile Banking Transactions in Kenya that allows the consumers to make a majority of mobile banking payments, transfers and transactions on their mobile phones Cell Bazaar in Bangladesh is a classic example where Mobile Purchase and Content consumers can buy and sell products across a mobile Purchase and delivery network CreditEx, in the US, also allows consumers to make payments for goods bought at local brick and mortar stores via their mobile phones Simpass, in China, is a mobile ticketing application that Mobile Ticketing allows consumers to use services such as public transport, movies, theaters, restaurants and amusement parks via mobile ticketing on the Simpass enabled phones M-KESHO is a service launched by Safaricom and Savings Account Equity bank in Kenya that allows consumers to store money and also earn interest on it mEnable, a service in the US, Germany and the UK, Enable Payments enables companies to bill their consumers in a variety of ways such as SMS, credit cards, WAP, wire, etc all on a safe and consumer protected platform MTS Ukraine, in association with Portmone, permits subscribers to pay for goods and services using a Visa / Mastercard, directly from the mobile phone including - recharging mobile phone balance, paying for a friends mobile phone connected to any other mobile operator of Ukraine, paying for Internet and cable TV, paying for telephone. MTS Azerbaijan has the IPAY service which provides subscribers the ability to transfer funds and/or make payments for the following services internet access, tickets to entertainment events, items purchased in shops and online auctions, access to gaming servers, cable and terrestrial TV, repayment of loans, utilities, electrical energy, water supply, natural gas, communication services, security services for apartments, etc.

M-Commerce in India Only 5% of all mobile subscribers are registered users of mobile banking and more significantly, only 0.5% of them are active mobile banking users 15. These are also primarily restricted to information based services. However, in order to achieve the target of 100% financial inclusion, initiatives have been taken by the government and by the regulator, RBI to support financial inclusion and promote MCommerce in India: RBI issued Mobile Banking Transactions in India Operative Guidelines for Banks in December 2009 and has communicated willingness to relax / modify norms as the market evolves and new models and security mechanisms emerge. RBI has increased mobile payment limit to `50,000 16. Earlier, only a Closed Wallet was allowed. Now, a Semi Closed Wallet has been allowed. BhartiAirtel was granted the license to use the Semi Closed Wallet by the RBI. In another recent development, RBI issued Semi Closed Mobile Wallet license to Itz Cash as well which is a non-bank semi closed pre-paid payment issuer in India. An open wallet system, which may fuel rapid success of these services in India, is yet to be allowed in the country. However, the National and Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) - set up by RBI, as an umbrella institution for all the retail payments system in the country - is currently piloting a Person-to-Person (P2P) money transfer mechanism called the Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS). Six of the leading banks in India are participating in this pilot, which can help in greater expansion of mobile banking services. RBI has played a helpful and pro-active role for enabling mobile commerce in India Business Head, Mobile & Internet Banking, leading bank in india SBI using mobile banking for Financial Inclusion RBI has focused its 100% Financial Inclusion plan on the public sector Banks. SBI, the countrys largest public sector bank is currently piloting two initiatives for financial inclusion that are based on the m-platform. SBI currently has a tie-up with two organizations for providing m-banking services in rural areas. Both initiatives were carried out in alliance with the application developers. They have tied up with Ecoaspire foundation to provide withdrawal, deposit andremittance services in rural areas using a mobile phone. There is a touch point kiosk at the village, where consumers may go to make their transactions. The person at the touch point makes the transactions for the consumers using his mobile phone, thereby taking the bank to them. They have also tied up with Oxigen Sahyog Microfinance to offer microfinance optionsin the villages again using the touch point kiosk method described above.