Financial Inclusion

Historically, some of the practices of Financial Services have greatly depended on demand. Trade Finance which has evolved to the level of universality is based on the needs of traders across the boundaries of states and countries, currencies and business law and practices. Such demands, initially come out of denial of services or facilities. Later, these assume the proportion of a need. Needs are serviced by entities who either see a business potential in servicing it or are responsible as a part of governance to meet the needs that arise in the financial markets. But all these services have been provided for those who had the wherewithal to be heard by the markets or the regulators. 


All along, there remained a strata of people who could never get themselves heard about their needs. They were also not noticeable due to the low monetary value of their activities. The regulators were all along more busy in streamlining the larger requirements that affected high value monetary activities. The Commercial Banks did not look at them because they never had the skill to address such a large issue. They were content to address the creamy layer and keep adrift on the float. 


This negligence of an unrepresented segment of society has its impact silently but certainly. Hence, it showed its results in various ways. Loss of opportunity for society to tap the talent of the unrepresented, Deterioration in living  and financial standards of the unrepresented, Continued deprivation, Inability to structure the financial path of life's activities. 


There have been sporadic attempts at addressing the issues of exclusion in many places. But all these attempts lacked the combination of will and ability mainly because the resultant value of such pursuits were never convincing. The fear of loss kept compelling the banks and regulators to lose the huge talent and wealth that could be derived by addressing the segment properly. 


Technology being one of the major enablers in such pursuits has brought another opportunity for the banks and regulators to effectively bring in a change and funnel the hidden treasure that lies excluded. There are " Treasure Islands" in all places where the financial system has hitherto not gone. It is only an adventurous spirit that can take us there. It is at best being done today with a spirit of philanthropy and needs a shift in approach from complacence and condescension to adventure and conviction to find the treasure. 

The real beginning of Financial Inclusion in the independent India started with the advent of the concept of "Social Banking" and then the Nationalization of Banks. This ensured that Banks make an effort to spread banking in hitherto unbanked areas leaving the known areas of potential and try to explore the potential in areas where traditionally commercial banking could not make any inroads earlier due to perceived lack of business potential. Over two decades, the second and third tier cities got Bank Branches and structured programmes of poverty alleviation and growth of Agriculture, Small Business, Retail resulted in an overall relative prosperity and availability of goods and services which were not previously available. 

However, the Government and Reserve Bank of India realized that these efforts of the past were not sufficient to bring the benefits of financial products and services to all and sundry. In its renewed efforts the RBI came out with a landmark guideline to the Banks for Bank-led Financial Inclusion through the Business Correspondent Model in 2006. 

Initially, all Banks mainly led by State Bank of India started fragmented pilots to arrive at a viable technology model to service the remote customers through the Business Correspondents. All sorts of technology solutions were explored during the pilot stage. Pos based, mobile based, laptop/desktop based models were experimented meeting substantial success. However, the three major challanges were faced. Power, data connectivity and Cash. These challanges still remain. 

At the Pilot stage there were several Technical Service Providers (TSP) emerged who hosted intermediate servers to consolidate the activities of the field devices and mostly were working in an offline mode. In some cases, the accounts on behalf of banks were also hosted in the servers of the TSPs. In 2010, RBI took up the initiative with great seriousness and advised banks to start covering the villages based on population criteria. 

The Department of Financial Services, in tandem with the Banks started a programme in 2011 called the Common BC Programme where one common BC was to be selected for a State to consolidate the mandates for Inclusion within a state and achieve economies of scale. 

During this Common BC Initiative emerged a Technical Architecture which was to be followed by all banks. This Architecture envisaged :

1. Online transactions

2. Hosting all Accounts and transactions in the CBS of the Bank

3. Ensuring Interoperability between banks by adopting standards based transactions

4. Centralized Biometric Authentication 

5. Provision for Aadhar Enabled Payments

This new Architecture is being followed by all Banks. In this model, the Business Correspondent can adopt the Kiosk Solution of the Bank or it could integrate a front end application of its own to deliver the service in the field. One overarching requirement here is to ensure that no data of the customer is stored outside the bank. 

Being an Online solution the issues of reconciliation get sorted out which were a typical bane of an offline systems followed earlier. Banks and companies in Financial Inclusion have suffered huge backlogs in reconciliation due to offline mode in the past. 

With the advent of EBT and DBT the leakages in the system would be stopped as a result of the direct payments to the Citizen through their accounts with Banks serviced by the Business Correspondent Channel of the Banks.

One more time

Yes, that is the refrain of life. Encountering the events we feel good or bad. However, the refrain remains, ...one more time for the good and ...not one more time for the bad. The penchant to experience the pleasure one more time is perhaps the most primitive instinct of a living being. Human beings, however, have perfected the art of hiding this penchant. Hiding the most obvious desire for repeated experience of pleasure.

Human beings also have the uncanny habit of trying to relate the eventual pains to their penchant for instinctive pleasure. This results in the fear of Sin. An act that results in pleasure can in no way subsequently result in pain. But we seem to believe that all our pain is due to the mistaken pleasures of the past. Past as it would , perhaps, mean does not and can not have a bearing on the present or the future. Our habit of viewing the present and the future as a natural sequence of the past makes us feel guilty or proud.

Pleasure and Pain are the sensations that we need to understand in great detail. What is pleasure ? I am totally confused when I try to identify a Pleasure from a Pain. Is birth a pleasure or a pain. I do not remember. Did it hurt me to be born? Perhaps it did and is that why I cried. But if it were a pain why would I celebrate a birthday.

So it is time to be back here. The clock has taken many furious rounds in the meanwhile, more than 200. Uncertainities are back again - and I am back with the ever dwindling confidence in myself and the world around. How many times I have felt the control slipping away. People before me must have felt the same. Do I see the smiling face of my late father?

Ringtones, Music, Cacophany all put together the world around me has become a system of oppression. The nerves, the mind and the auditory organs all tend to revolt, but I am yet to be deaf because I am yet not dumbed by the crazy world. I still feel I would be able to find some meaning from this most haphazard existence - human existence. Trying to find patterns. Trying build sense into what defies sense.

While the singular certainty of life is forgotten I keep looking for certainty in the uncertainities.

I must be a sensible fellow to do that. Others do not try the same. They just swing with the times. They are in the stream. I am out of it and would choose to be against the stream if I were compelled to choose.

Uncertainty

There are no better friends than the small uncertainties of life that keep reminding you of the extremely fragile nature of human control on oneself.

When I started writing I thought I would do it everyday. Slowly the writings would accumulate to become the omnibus that I intended to write always.

After four postings I was silent. Life's apparent and emerging certainties had made the earlier intent much weaker. Where do we get the memory and the commitment to take along the intent with emerging opportunities(perceived) and compulsions.

I remember the early childhood commitment to Truth which I have given up somewhere during the journey because I felt the opportunities would not be tolerating the adherence to Truth.

Somewhere down the journey I also left the elegant commitment to straightforwardness.

I now do not perhaps remember all that I intended to do or not do. I do not even realize what I do as the acts and impacts become more incomprehensible.

Write the right thing

The left and the right had a fight.
The left was left and
right was right.
Who named the left and right?

If left were right why would it be named left.

And right has no desire to be left while left always claims to be right.

You can all see who is who between left and right!

जय

जय शब्द का विष्लेशण किया जाये तो ऐसा प्रतीत होता है कि किसीको परास्त करना ही जय है। मूल रुप से किसी भी व्यवधान को अतिक्रम करना जय है। जय एक व्यक्तिगत उपलब्धि है न कि किसी और की पराजय। और संजय संजय है क्यों की उन्होने धृतराष्ट्र को स्थान और काल के व्यवधान् को अतिक्रम करने मे सहायता की।

My murmur

Dreamers live
Others only Sleep