on july 7, 2004 for inviting comments / suggestions from market participants. subsequently, the issues were discussed with market participants as also in the technical advisory committee on money, foreign exchange and government securities markets. accordingly, in the mid - term review of the annual policy statement for the year 2004 - 05, the following three recommendations were accepted viz., ( i ) reduction in minimum maturity period from 15 days to 7 days ; ( ii ) reporting of issuance of cp on the negotiated dealing system ( nds ) platform by the end of the day ; and ( iii ) constitution of a group comprising market participants to rationalize and standardise, wherever possible, various aspects of processing, settlement and documentation of cp issuance with a view to achieving the settlement at least on t + 1 basis. in this regard, i would like to inform you that the minimum maturity period has since been reduced to 7 days with effect from october 26, 2004. further, necessary software development has been taken up for reporting of cp on nds platform. we expect it to be ready by early this year. as regards the constitution of the group to rationalize and standardise the various market practices with a view to achieving the settlement at least on t + 1 basis, the group has been set up under the chairmanship of shri c. e. s. azariah, chief general manager, state bank of india within fimmda. i am told the group is expected to submit the report soon. the other recommendations made in the status paper are as follows : • rating : the status paper proposed that minimum credit rating may be brought down to p3 of crisil or its equivalent to provide wider choices to both issuers and investors. incidentally, p3 is the lowest level among the investment grades. in this context, it may be noted that the cp market is generally accessible only to companies with high credit quality as only such companies can find buyers for their commercial paper. this is evidenced from the fact that prime rated companies ( i. e., p1 + or equivalent ) constituted about 87 per cent of the total amount of cp issued during 2004 - 05 so far as indicated above. therefore, investors in the market appear to require commercial paper to have virtually no default risk. it may, however, be noted that we continue to maintain p2 or its equivalent as the minimum credit rating required for issue of cp. • asset backed commercial paper : the status report recommended introduction of abcp for further deep

existing account holder in a bank should be adequate to open an account. in this regard, aadhar, the unique identification number ( uid ) project of the central government, which aims at providing a bis central bankers ’ speeches unique id number for everyone in the country, will help the poor to establish their identity to meet the banks ’ kyc norms. fifth, farmers can get credit from banks conveniently through kisan credit cards ( kccs ) and general purpose credit cards ( gccs ). sixth, while several banking facilities are available, a common person may not be aware of them. hence, financial literacy becomes important. accordingly, the reserve bank has initiated a “ project financial literacy ” with the objective of disseminating information regarding the central bank and general banking concepts to various target groups. our “ financial education ” website link offers basics of banking, finance and central banking for children of all ages. our website is also available in 13 languages. finally, there is also a learning process for the reserve bank. we recognise that being responsible for banking, we must be sensitive to the needs of a common person. accordingly, our governor, dr. subbarao initiated the outreach programme last year as a part of our platinum jubilee celebrations. under the outreach programme, the top management of the reserve bank visits at least one village in every state and union territory with state government officials and commercial banks to give focused attention on financial inclusion. this has been highly enriching experience for us to understand the ground realities. accordingly, we have decided to continue these programmes. financial inclusion in goa let me now turn to our initiatives for financial inclusion in goa. first, in order to provide banking services through a banking outlet in every village having a population of over 2000, by march 2012, 41 villages have been identified for the financial inclusion drive in the state. as on june 30, 2011, banking services were provided in 36 villages through business correspondents ( bcs ), in 4 villages through mobile vans and in one village through opening of a branch outlet. this banking coverage has been achieved well ahead of the time. second, focus has now shifted for inclusion of villages with population between 1000 and 2000 : 65 such unbanked villages have been identified and allocated among different banks for making banking service available. third, as of end june 2011, total 1, 21, 210 no frill accounts ( nfa ) were opened with outstanding deposits of rs. 33 crore, of which 4, 930 nfa