Report of the Committee on Financial Inclusion

January 30, 2008 at 8:32 am · Filed under Legislation, Microfinance, Mobile Banking and tagged: financial inclusion, Microcredit, Microfinance, Mobile Banking etc, Rangarajan Committee

The Report of the Committee on Financial Inclusion is finally out !! Please download it by clicking this link. 

 Background of the Report: The Government in June 2006, had constituted a Committee to prepare a strategy of ‘Financial Inclusion’. The Ten Member Committee, was constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. The terms of reference of the Committee included:

i) To study the pattern of exclusion from access to financial services disaggregated by region, gender and occupational structure.

ii) To identify the barriers confronted by vulnerable groups in accessing credit and financial services, including supply demand and institutional constraints.

iii) To review the international experience in implementing policies for financial inclusion and examine their relevance/applicability to India.

iv) To suggest

– strategy to extend financial services to small and marginal farmers and other vulnerable groups, including measures to streamline and simplify procedures, reduce transaction costs and make the operations transparent.

– measures including institutional changes to be undertaken by the financial sector to implement the proposed strategy of financial inclusion.

– a monitoring mechanism to assess the quality and quantum of financial inclusion including indicators for assessing progress.

Government had been concerned that despite the vast expansion, modernization and diversification of ownership of financial institutions, a large number of vulnerable groups remain excluded from the opportunities and services provided by the financial sector. Such excluded groups include women, small and marginal farmers, people in the unorganized sector, the self employed and the pensioners. Government was anxious to correct this situation and extend the reach of the financial sector to such vulnerable group by minimizing, if not eliminating, the formal and informal barriers to access encountered by such groups.

The members of the Committee were Shri Vinod Rai, Special Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Dr. (Ms.) Rohini Nayyar, Adviser, Rural Development, Shri M.B.N. Rao, CMD, Canara Bank, Shri Yogesh Agarwal, MD, State Bank of Patiala, Prof. Mahinder Dev, Director, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, Shri Vijay Mahajan, CEO, BASIX, Shri R. Gopalkrishnan, ED, TATA Sons, Shri A.P. Fernandes, Director, MYRADA and Dr. Y.S.P. Thorat, Chairman, NABARD.(PIB)

Comments (1)