Since India’s independence 67 years back, the country has seen development on lot many fronts, making it the second fastest growing economy in the world today. But, providing financial services to more than 40 percent of the population, living mostly in the rural areas, and bringing them in the financial mainstream still remains a challenging task. Those financially excluded segments of our society are yet to get connected and contribute meaningfully towards an inclusive growth of the Indian economy.
Although the idea of financial inclusion is not something new and has been the buzzword at the Reserve Bank of India since 2005, it has seen only limited success over the years. In recent times, the most significant thrust to the idea has come in the form of Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which targets to open 7.5 crore bank accounts by January 2015. The ambitious financial inclusion programme, getting a direct push from Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, envisages access to banking accounts for all the unbanked people with overdraft facility of Rs 5,000 each. They would be provided with a RuPay debit card and Rs 1-lakh inbuilt accident insurance cover.
The PMJDY, like other financial inclusion programmes, will not only connect the financially excluded people directly with the economy, by inducing them to make savings, it will also guard them against the greedy, unscrupulous traditional money-lenders. Besides, the habit of making savings will also provide them with a monetary cushion in their rainy days, thus making them financially sound and adding to their overall prosperity.
With a view to promoting the Modi Government’s vision to ensure inclusive growth through financial inclusion, we decided to turn Jan Dhan Yojana into the theme of this issue of eGov. Besides, Elets Technomedia is also going to organise its second edition of “Financial Inclusion & Payment Systems (FIPS) Summit 2014”. By bringing together the various stakeholders of the BFSI sector, the event will highlight the crucial role that the government agencies, banks, NBFCs and payment companies are playing to promote financial inclusion.
The Conference, Awards and Exhibition during the Summit will, thus, not only take forward the agenda of the government to provide access to financial services to one and all, but also bring to fore the challenges impeding the humongous task in a culturally diverse and geographically expansive country, and throw up possible solutions thereof.
See you at FIPS Summit 2014!
