[This article was published in the April 2008 issue of the eGov Magazine (http://www.egovonline.net) ]
The use of ICT is inevitable to improve the usage of existing branch infrastructure to expand its the outreach of the formal financial system to the rural poor. The following are some initiatives towards achieving financial inclusion:
[This article was published in the April 2008 issue of the eGov Magazine (http://www.egovonline.net) ]
India
[This article was published in the April 2008 issue of the eGov Magazine (http://www.egovonline.net) ]
Lessons learnt
It has been deliberated and discussed, in detail, in the recently concluded 8th Annual Baramati Initiative, on the importance of reaching the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in India, especially to the areas that are normally out of reach, where the interventions of tele-Education, tele-Medicine and tele-Governance, in addition to a plethora of innovative services such as smart card accessing, simputering and mobile banking, can be made possible.
In e-Governance readiness, India has fallen from a rank of 87 in 2005 to 113 in 2008 on e-Government readiness. According to the UN e-Government Survey 2008, India has slipped 26 places in the last three years and been overtaken by countries like Maldives (ranked 95), Sri Lanka (101) and even Iran (108).
Soon State Bank of India (SBI) will provide banking services through e-Gram project, the Gujarat Government-pioneered e-Gram project, which aims to provide e-Governance services in villages. SBI will provide checking of account balance, deposits, loans insurance and other banking services through the Internet.
“eGovServices has become the largest CSC operator in the country (and perhaps in the world).
Thousands of villagers across 12 states are likely to get their social security pension and wages paid under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme with the help of mobiles over the coming few months.
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) has released its 2008 e-Government Survey, which shows that all GCC member states have significantly improved in e-Government Readiness since the 2005 survey.
To ensure the safety and security of the payment systems, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has
The Government of Andhra Pradesh (India) has decided to provide mobile phones to more than 7,000 health workers who are working in rural areas to offer instant medical services to their families on any health problems by contacting the doctors deputed for the purpose.
