Gurgaon: Class 11 student develops mobile application for spreading financial literacy

A Class 11 student in Gurgaon has developed a mobile application to spread financial literacy and empower users to manage their income and savings in an informed manner. Aryan Jain, a student of Sun City school in Gurgaon, plans to make 7,500 Indians financially literate over the next 75 days using the application, which is currently available only on Android.

"According to a SEBI report, only 27 percent of India’s population is financially literate. There is a need for greater financial literacy, particularly in tier 2 and 3 cities. The application is an effort to empower each person to manage their income and savings in a better way, be aware of their short and long-term financial needs, save and invest for future needs and emergencies, and invest money to create a secure future for themselves and their families," he said. The app named "DhanDanaDan" will not only promote financial literacy but also encourage the youth to learn this skill early in life, Jain added.

There are five modules in the application. The first one is to explain the importance of financial planning. It briefly discusses sources of income, types of financial needs, types of expenses and key financial terminology. The second module focuses on understanding income. "It covers topics related to income and its sources, the need to keep a tab on the regularity of inflow of income from different sources, the difference between active and passive income, regular and irregular incomes sources, and the need to maintain a financial diary and guidance on building more sources of passive income," Jain said.

The third, fourth and fifth modules are on expense management, savings, options and schemes. However, this is not the first mobile application developed by Jain. In 2021, he was the only Indian amongst the winners of NASA’s Artemis Next-Gen STEM – Moon to Mars App Development Challenge, where he along with students from other countries developed an application to participate in the Artemis Generation endeavours to land astronauts on the moon by 2024.

Through a series of five animated videos in an urban set-up and following a storytelling format guided by a teenage character, DhanDanaDan explains several basic and important concepts of financial planning in a simplified manner in Hindi. There is also a quiz at the end of each module to help the individual to assess their learning outcomes and a reward in the form of a certificate and badge for those who score well.