Thesis Inclusive Finance

Key points from the Thesis “Inclusive Finance – A Road Map” submitted by Dr. Asim Kumar Chattopadhyay

1. A corporate body like “Financial Inclusion Commission of India” can be constituted to exclusively look into the matters of financial inclusion and act as a regulatory body.
2. Emphasis should be on conglomerate concept partnering social security providers like insurance companies, Indian postal system and unit trust of India rather than sole penetration by the banking industry.
3. Saving as well as credit both should be treated as equally important.
4. Employment generation should be a focus area.
5. Financial as well as social security literacy to be provided to public.
6. Transformation of bank Mitras to become family friend like family doctor.
7. Transformation of Bank Mitra outlets to provide hassle free and 24 hours service.
8. Infrastructure of post offices, railway stations, block development offices, gram panchayat offices can be utilized to provide banking and social security services.
9. Financial inclusion related curriculum should be included at school-level to create awareness from scratch.
10. Funds can be sourced from corporate social responsibility and education cess.
11. Bank Mitras need to be recruited with utmost care and proper training be given to them so that they can really help the village people with sincerity and be their family-friend.
12. Government payments (G2P) needs to be boosted further.
13. National center for financial inclusion should be encouraged to carry out research activities and come up with innovative strategy for financial literacy.
14. Priority sector lending (PSL) targets should be increased from current 40% to at least 50%.
15. Bank boards need to review the operations of the BCs at least once every six months with a view to ensuring that the requirement of pre-funding of corporate BCs and BC agents should progressively taper down.
16. Strict laws should be made to deal with moneylending mafia.
17. Mobile POS, micro-ATM, Pre-paid instruments, mobile enabled kishan credit card (KCC), Variable installment RD, gold linked products, micro pension needs to be boosted.
18. Biometric ATMs needs to be popularized more to cater to the needs of vast illiterate population of the country.
19. An index needs to be developed to measure both access and level of literacy.
20. A financial inclusion AID fund may be created for financial literacy encouragement and awareness programmes with income tax exemption benefit to the contributors.