FINANCIAL INCLUSION - NEWS AND VIEWS - JUNE 2017

May newsletter

 
 

The Supreme Court continues to confound Aadhaar opponents. In August 2015, it disallowed the mandatory use of Aadhaar in government schemes;yet, on May 19th, it refused to grant an interim stay on the current deadline of June 30th to link all PAN to Aadhaar. Rather than come out with a clear verdict in May, the petitions against mandatory linking of Aadhaar will now be heard on 27th June, three days before the deadline. What we actually need is frank, open discussion, inside and outside the Parliament, looking at all aspects around giving Indians a digital id. Rather than Supreme Court judgements and case law, what we need is a comprehensive bill, that will give Aadhaar a transparent legal framework to operate under. Read more on this by Sumita Kale in the Financial Express, May 23rd, 2017. For an overview of all the cases against Aadhaar pending in the Supreme Court, see Indian Express, May 31st, 2017.

Will the tyranny of choice affect the new banks growth? With three payments banks operational now, each offering different interest rates, products and incentives, we wonder if the choice overload may confuse people, whether people would gravitate towards more staid regular banks or test the new plans. See the Hindu Business Line, May 24, 2017 for an overview of all that is currently on offer.

These are interesting times, but rather than let the market forces play out, the RBI is not letting go easily. When India Post Payments Bank announced different rates on three types of accounts, it had to backtrack, as the RBI did not allow differential rates on deposits below Rs. one lakh. It is not clear what holds the RBI back on this, but surely new banks should be allowed to explore new options? See Economic Times, May 24, 2017 for the bid by the payments banks for more freedom.

Rather than a policy push, true progress in financial inclusion and retail digital payments in India will come only when service providers adopt a customer centric architecture. We now have S. S. Mundra, Deputy Governor, RBI calling out for banks to raise the bar on customer service and talking of bank account number portability in the future (RBI, May 30, 2017). For digital payments, customer centricity means ensuring zero friction while transacting and a relook at the incentives offered; a possible road map for this has been given by Probir Roy (Mint, May 4, 2017).


 

Rationalisation of Branch Authorisation Policy- Revision of Guidelines
Inauguration of Public Financial Management System (PFMS) Help Desk by Controller General of Accounts
Payment of Transaction Charges and Cash-out Incentives on Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) and PAHAL transactions
Pradhan Mantri Jan - Dhan Yojana

 
 

• Monitoring the Progress of Financial Inclusion in India - Policy Brief March 2017


 

What India’s Payments Banks Offer
Financial inclusion comes of age
What's Next for the Bitcoin Revolution in India ?
Financial Inclusion: How far to go ?
Banking on technology: P2P lending and the uberization of financial services in India
The Modi Government Has Ensured Financial Inclusion, Now It Needs To Make It Count
Time for a digital Indian Rupee
Can FinTech Cos replace traditional banking ?
Can instant messenger disrupt the digital payments market in India?
The Four Zones: A Missing Chapter in the Financial Inclusion Guidebook
Lessons from Orality for Digital Financial Services Development
Innovation in Mobile Money: What Are the Risks?
Can Digital Savings Reduce Risks in Digital Credit?
How Do Mobile Money Fee Structures Impact the Poor?


 

Assessment of AeFDS (Aadhaar enabled Fertilizer Distribution System) Pilot, MicroSave, June 2017
Securing the Masses: An Assessment of Jan Suraksha Schemes, MicroSave, May 2017
Understanding Karnataka's Food Coupon System, MicroSave, May 2017
National Survey and Segmentation of Smallholder Households, Bangladesh, CGAP, May 2017

 

Editor:sumita@indicus.org The Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion was launched in 2011 to distil and disseminate information on accelerating the poor’s access to high-quality financial services. ©Indicus Centre for Financial Inclusion. All rights reserved. 4thMay 2017
 

Newsletters from July 2020 are available at https://icfi.substack.com/

Newsletters

April-2022 Indian banks – blind to inclusion opportunities

  ... Continue Reading

March-2022 Fixing the Ecosystem: BC certification, Gender sensitization & more!

The availability of... Continue Reading

February-2022 UPI - Changing the way Indians transact!

  India’s progress in financial inclusion and digital payments over the past few years has been beautifully brought out by the Economic Survey 2021-22, which has thankfully,... Continue Reading

January-2022 Business Correspondents get the attention they deserve, finally!

  Last month, in December 2021, the Department of Financial Services constituted a Working Group to go into the issues and challenges affecting the business correspondent (BC)... Continue Reading

December-2021 India needs 2,00,000 Bank Sakhis!

  Results from the National Family Health Survey Round 5 2019-21 are out, further validating India’s phenomenal progress in financial inclusion – 77.4% of rural Indian women... Continue Reading

November-2021 Let’s Raise the Drumbeat to Push RBI for Gender-Disaggregated Data!

  This Diwali, we did a quick roundup of India’s financial inclusion progress and picked out the key challenges we need to crack. Laveesh and I have been analysing and... Continue Reading

October-2021 Rising Prices Dim the Cheer of a Recovering Economy

  This Diwali just might see more cheer than expected as the aftermath of the second wave recedes. Several high-frequency indicators have shown a recovery... Continue Reading

September-2021 PhonePe's data dashboard shows the way; Will NPCI and RBI oblige too?

  India is going through a V-shaped recovery, as the impact of the second wave recedes. However, growth... Continue Reading

August-2021 Listening to the Customer is Key to Expanding Inclusion

  As the second wave of the pandemic died down in India, the economy began a patchy recovery –... Continue Reading

July-2021 RBI Steps Forward on Activity-based Regulation for Microfinance

  With the second wave of the pandemic receded, the economy is picking up slowly. However, local... Continue Reading

June-2021 Coordinated Approach at District Level Needed for Inclusion for the Last...

  The times are bad, very bad. Last year, with a drastic national lockdown, India chose to save lives... Continue Reading

May-2021 The Second Wave hits Lives and Livelihoods

  The times are bad, very bad. Last year, with a drastic national lockdown, India chose to save lives... Continue Reading

Copyright © 2015 - All Rights Reserved