Swabhiman – Our Account Our Pride!

G S Oinam *

Opening accounts of business news in Manipur, picking up one suitable topic from the past tense, present tense and future tense of corporate, banking and business world to educate the people is difficult task-- media house will required bread and butter for business correspondents. We hope that corporate bodies, business house and banks will reciprocate the same to the amount of writing. Also, we are encouraging business experts, corporate experts to join into the discussion.

Young business correspondents having back ground of finance, commerce, business, economics must be recruiting to launch a campaign of innovative business, banking and corporate in Manipur. While nationally there are 59 bank accounts per 100 adult populations in the North East there are only 37.3 bank accounts per 100 adult populations.

The study titled, 'Understanding and Responding to the Savings Behaviour of Poor People in the North East of India', pointed out that lack of access to formal financial institutions has primarily been responsible for the thriving of various traditional informal systems, catering to the socio-economic needs of the people in the region.

The study revealed, "Almost all the districts in Manipur and Nagaland have a ratio far worse than the all-India average. There are around 175 currency chests in the region. RBI is planning to add another 10 to 15 currency chests in different places. Nearly 80 percent of bank branches in North East India are connected under National Electronics Funds Transfer System (NEFT)."

Two Forex bank branches have already been opened, one each in the land custom stations (LCS) of Dawki in Meghalaya and Moreh in Manipur. "We will come up with Forex facilities in some other LCS of the region," G. Gopalakrishna, RBI's Executive Director says.

Swabhiman – Our Account Our Pride was launched by Smt. Sonia Gandhi, the Chairperson of the UPA in the presence of Shri Pranab Mukherjee, the Union Finance Minister and Shri Namo Narain Meena, the Union Minister of State for Finance on February 10, 2011. It is the campaign started by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India and the Indian Banks Association (IBA)-( an association of most of the Indian banks) to bring banking within the reach of the masses of the Indian population. This campaign or the movement is started to promote banking facilities and basic banking services to 73,000 villages in the country which are not served by any bank so far.

The aim of the government is to bring a bank within the reach of every village with a population of over 2000 by the end of March, 2012. The bank in the village will facilitate the opening of an account by a villager. It will provide a need-based credit to the villagers. Remittance facilities to transfer funds from one place to another will also be the part of the banking services to these villagers.

The main objective of the government is to promote and bring about a financial literacy in rural parts of India. New computer based technology connecting all the banks with one another in the country, is going to play a very important role in this campaign. The other partners in promoting this gigantic programme will be our newspapers and the electronic media carrying the news of this programme to even the remote corners of the country.

The business correspondents and writers will play a great role in this mammoth campaign launched for promoting the banking sector with a social outlook. This great initiative of the government of India and the Indian Banks Association to cover up the gap between the rural and urban India is going to complete the banking revolution which started in our country in the sixties by nationalising the banks and giving them a social outlook. This will be a path-breaking achievement of the government to help the rural masses of India.

Under the programme, it is proposed to open five crore new rural bank accounts. Opening accounts for so many illiterate and semi literate people of rural India is apparently going to test the mettle and perseverance of the banking officials. The banking sector has also to ensure that banking transactions are safe and secure. The linking of the rural population with the urban markets will be a great achievement of this revolutionary campaign. It is reported that the banking will be taken door to door through business correspondents who will be called 'Bank Saathi (Friend)'.

Taking into account of the illiterate nature of the rural people, the procedures for opening the bank accounts will be simplified. Facilities of easy access to credit and saving products will be provided under this scheme. There will be a speedy transfer of funds and payment of government subsidies and other developmental funds allotted by the government from time to time for the rural sector. The social security benefits can be directly transferred to the beneficiary accounts removing the operations of middlemen who loot the illiterate rural population before the benefits finally reach them.

The scheme will also promote the micro-insurance and micro-pension plans for the villagers. Financial Inclusion is an important priority of the Government as only about 38 per cent of the 85292 bank branches of Scheduled Commercial Banks are in rural areas and only 40 per cent of the country's population has bank accounts. To address this need, the Government has directed all banks to provide appropriate banking facilities to habitations having population in excess of 2000 by March, 2012 using various models and technologies including branchless banking through Business Correspondents (BCs).

The banks have formulated their road maps for Financial Inclusion and have identified about 73,000 habitations having a population of over 2000 for providing banking in India. "Swabhiman" - Swabhiman (pronounced as swaa-bhi-maan) meaning self-respect comes from Swa-(meaning Self) and -abhiman (meaning Respect or Pride) in Sanskrit language, a nationwide programme on financial inclusion, estimated to cover approximately 5 crore households, is now ready for roll out.

"Swavalamban" - a co-contributory pension scheme for workers in unorganized sector, has been launched on 26.9.2010. The Central Government shall contribute a sum of Rs.1,000 per annum to the workers in unorganized sectors who contribute a sum of Rs.1,000 to Rs.12,000 per year in their pension accounts during the financial year 2010-11, are not in regular employment of the Central or the State Government or any of their entities, or not covered by any of the Social Security Scheme. Government has targeted 10 lakh workers from un-organized sectors each during the initial four years of the implementation of Swavalamban Scheme totaling to 40 lakh subscribers by March, 2014. For the purpose, PFRDA would also be undertaking extensive financial literacy and awareness campaigns in association with the Aggregators.

In the financial year 2009-10, the Government had announced the ground level credit target for agriculture at Rs 3,25,000 crore. The total credit flow to agriculture during 2009-10 was of the order of Rs. 3,66,919 crore, which is 113% of the annual target. For the financial year 2010-11, the Government has set agriculture credit flow target at Rs 3, 75,000crore.

In an interview about Swabhiman, Shri K.V. Eapen, the Joint Finance Secretary of India told media that banks are expected to popularize the electronics benefit transfer (EBT) scheme for efficiency of the program. EBT is mode through which the government currently makes payments to the workers involved in various public welfare schemes. Thus, Swabhiman will provide a platform for banks to launch their products and services like small overdraft facility, remittance, small loans and small deposits to the rural poor.

Swabhiman, though is in planning stage, has some assured benefits for the common man. A common man can now be included in the organized financial sector without the tedious paperwork. It will not only ensure availing of a variety of financial services at doorstep but also easy enrolment to all public welfare schemes.

Reaching out at such a grand scale can face a number of challenges that are meticulous in nature. Ranging from connectivity of handheld devices, geographical connectivity to literacy rate of the population can raise issues in smooth implementation of the program. But, tackling these challenges and bottlenecks is now expected from Indian Government.

Design -- Banking with the poor Network, Centre for financial inclusion, CGAP, Financial Access Initiative Blog , FINO Blog, IFMR Blog, The Prepaid Economy Blog, The Smart Campaign Labels

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State Bank of India's linkage with Government business is widespread. No wonder that out of 9315 branches in India, about 7000 branches are conducting Government Business. The large network of branches provides easy access to the common man to deposit the following Government dues and pension payments. "SBI now provides your Account Balance and Transaction details over phone round-the-clock. The Bank finances for Small Business activities which are of special significance to a large number of people as many of these activities can be started with relatively lower investment and with no special skills on the part of the entrepreneurs.

Listed on the left are Services, SBI offers to its customers:- DOMESTIC TREASURY, SBI VISHWA YATRA FOREIGN TRAVEL CARD, BROKING SERVICES, REVISED SERVICE CHARGES, ATM SERVICES, INTERNET BANKING, E-PAY, E-RAIL, RBIEFT, SAFE DEPOSIT LOCKER, MICR CODES

State Bank of India on agriculture & rural area: Caters to the needs of agriculturists and landless agricultural labourers through a network of 8750 rural and semi-urban branches. Apart from the branches, there are 428 Agricultural Development Branches (ADBs) which also cater to agriculturists. SBI are the leaders in agri finance in the country with a portfolio of Rs. 64,000 crs in agri advances covering around 80 lac accounts.

SBI branches have covered a whole gamut of agricultural activities like crop production, horticulture, plantation crops, farm mechanization, land development and reclamation, digging of wells, tube wells and irrigation projects, forestry, construction of cold storages and godowns, processing of agri-products, finance to agri-input dealers, allied activities like dairy , fisheries, poultry, sheep-goat, piggery and rearing of silk worms. To give special focus to agriculture lending Bank has also appointed agri specialists in various disciplines to handle projects/ guide farmers in their agri ventures. Advances are given to borrowers for very small activities covering poorest of the poor to hitech activities involving large fund outlays.

Now, SBI are setting up Agri Commercial Branches (ACBs) which will handle high value agri financing involving large investments. It envisages lending through corporate partnerships and other large enterprises for commodity financing, investment credit, other high value agriculture segments like horticulture, floriculture & food processing etc. It also focuses on Agri related SME including setting up of Rice and Dhal mills, seed processing industry, food processing industry, large and small scale dairy units, etc.

Traditionally, rural business is associated with agriculture and allied activities. Of late however, the trickle down effect of economic growth, renewed focus on infrastructure development, and employment generation in rural areas have led to huge investment by the Government in rural India, with a view to bridge the urban and rural divide.

Considering that agriculture would continue to be significant driver of Indian economy, with the possibilities of rapid growth in emerging areas like contract farming, agro-processing and agro-export zones, etc., a separate Agri Business Unit (ABU) with a distinct organizational structure has been set up in the Bank to providing focused attention on the banking requirements of the agriculture segment; Achieving 18% target under agricultural advances as required under priority sector norms; Focus on micro finance and SHG opportunities (now part of non-farm sector in Rural Business);Focus on Key Corporate and Institutional relationships in agriculture, emerging opportunities, and special initiatives, as may be necessary; Focus on product development and management; Reduce NPA levels in Agriculture; Make agriculture a commercial proposition.

SBI also have an effective Marketing and recovery team in each region with responsibilities for marketing and building relationships with dealers of agri-products, organizing promotional events and for loan sanction, processing, monitoring and recovery. With a collective effort of Govt. and the people, SBI are set forth to continue growth in the rural and agri development and become the 'Banker to Every Indian'