A stimulating session at VJIM. Hyderabad, lead by Mr. Mohan, Professional Trainer and Consultant Dr. Venkatesh, Manager in IDBI

30^th October, 2015, VJIM, Hyderabad: The main motive of organizing seminar on Financial Inclusion and Inclusive Growth is to know the extent of financial inclusion/exclusion in India and to understand the role of financial inclusion for inclusive growth. According to the speakers, Financial Inclusion means, “Delivery of financial services at an affordable cost to vast section of people. It is something going beyond banking.”

The services which normally comes under financial inclusions, include – credit, savings, insurance, payments, financial advice, etc. The history of strategies for Inclusive growth/Financial Inclusion is explained in three phases, says one of the speaker. Reserve Bank of India has set up different types of committees for research on financial inclusions. The first committee set up was Rangarajan Committee, and it was taken up next by NachiketMor Committee. It has various advantages like it provides formal credits or remittances, provides economic growth through savings or interest by people.

Though financial inclusion is considered to be an important determinant for social inclusion of poor, it failed for various reasons like absence of technology, research & coverage, delivery mechanism, not having a business model, etc., but still people are talking of it because focus on Inclusive growth, arrival of banking technology and realization that poor is bankable.

The issues and challenges include use of technology, infrastructural limitations, high cost, strict KYC norms, behavioral aspects, financial literacy, multiplicity of models, etc. “Financial Literacy and Financial Inclusion are complimentary to each other”, says one of the speaker. Financial Literacy is very important as it helps build peoples capability to use financial products and services, creates demand and help institutions devise appropriate products.

The seminar concluded saying that, Inclusive growth depends mainly on equitable distribution of growth benefits and opportunities and financial inclusion is one of the most critical parts, which need to be equitably distributed in the country in order to attain comprehensive growth. It needs to be assumed that, to bring higher growth, there should be inclusive finance irrespective of all sections of people.

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