need to expand our sample size and the coverage of financial details. we should also establish links with ministry of corporate affairs ( mca ) database to improve our coverage of corporate statistics. third, asset prices, particularly house prices are assuming greater importance in monetary transmission. while development of housing finance in advanced countries has a long history, the expansion of housing finance by the formal financial sector in india is of relatively recent origin. keeping in view the demand - supply gap, our favourable demography, increasing urbanisation and growth prospects, the demand for housing finance will continue to grow. at the same time risks also arise to household and bank balance sheets with fluctuation in prices and changes in the business cycle. hence, there is a need for developing a data base on housing finance. availability of statistics on housing finance has been limited. we have two publicly available house price indices ( hpis ) : ( i ) nhb - residex compiled on survey based information for 20 cities, and ( ii ) rbi - hpi based on registration prices information for 9 cities. however, to assess the impact of house prices on the broader economy such information as loan to value ( ltv ) ratio, equated monthly instalment ( emi ) to income ratio, price to income ratio, borrowers ’ characteristics and other important attributes of the property dealings becomes important. recently the department has launched a new statistical survey to capture such information based on housing loan transaction as available with banks and housing finance companies ( hfcs ). i hope this survey can be placed in public domain quickly after it is examined by our technical advisory committee on surveys. on this occasion of the statistics day i congratulate colleagues from the statistics department for the good work they are doing. i once again extend a hearty welcome to all our speakers and all our invitees, and look forward to the intellectual fare ahead. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

senior citizens to enable them to make informed financial decisions. to support this we have nearly 800 financial literacy centres set up by banks. we have designed a mass scale financial literacy program with an objective to integrate the financially excluded population with low level of income and low literacy level with the formal financial system. financial literacy centres organize outdoor literacy camps which are spread over a period of three months and delivered in three phases wherein along with creating awareness, accounts are also opened in the literacy camps. way forward – issues and challenges structure with adoption of new branchless delivery channels by banks, there is a need for banks to revamp the structure for carrying out banking operations. there cannot be a fixed structured defined which can be adopted by all the banks. each bank has to based on its current architecture develop a structure that can enhance its financial inclusion efforts. this would entail the following : • review of the hr policies with respect to recruitment of staff in view of the fi requirements. separate cadre of staff can be thought off for catering to the needs of providing banking services in far flung rural areas. • banks have to think and act differently and make themselves more flexible so as to meet even the smallest requirements of the rural population. bis central bankers ’ speeches bc model there are many challenges being faced while implementing bc model. sustainability and scalability of the bc model is essential. more and more innovative products will have to be introduced which would benefit both banks as well as the rural people and at the same time make the bc model more viable. review of the cash management practices for delivery of banking services through the branchless modes need to be done for ensuring scaling up of the various models. transactions during the first phase of our fi initiative, we have had success as regards opening of banking outlets by banks and also in opening bank accounts for large number of individuals. going forward our idea is to enable more transactions in these accounts by providing more credit products, which will not only help rural people to avail of credit at comparatively lower rates of interest but at the same time also make the bc model viable for banks. banks have been advised to leverage upon the direct benefit transfer initiative of the government of india for linking all the individuals to the banking system and for utilizing the large amounts likely to be credited in these accounts for encouraging issue of deposit and credit products. collaboration finally, financial inclusion cannot be achieved without the active involvement of all stakeholders like rbi, other financial regulators, banks, governments, ngos, civil societies, etc. the current policy