NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, January 13, 2014

Fingers flying over her mobile, tailoring apprentice Gurvinder Kaur is one of the many youngsters in the Delhi metro absorbed in their magic pill of the moment—playing games on the handset. On the bus to his computer applications class, 19-year-old Mohammad Tahir, too, shuts out the world, busy gaming. Among the froth of downloads like Subway Surfer and Plants vs Zombies, Gurvinder and Mohammad encounter a mobile game through which they learn money management skills. “I’ve done hours of timepass with this mazedaar game,” laughs Mohammad, a bit abashed, till he recalls that the interactive 3-D board game helps him open and handle a virtual bank account, cash in hand and changing assets and liabilities. “Though I’ve not earned a single rupee yet, I’ll soon be getting a job when my course is over and, then, I’ll be playing like this in the real world,” he says.