base availing of mobile banking facilities as on september 30, 2010 stands at 8. 87 lakh as compared to 6. 16 lakh as at the end of august 2010. during september, 2010, 4. 9 lakh transactions of value rs. 44 crores were carried out using this mode of payment both for transfer of funds and purchase of goods and services. concluding thoughts 18. while the growth of mobile payments has been rapid, it is far from becoming an important source of financial inclusion. this in my view calls for two important facilitations. one, partnership rather than competition among the stake holders, importantly mobile companies and banks and two, a ubiquitous switch for enabling interbank p to p and p to b payments. while we are working towards achieving the first facility, npci has taken the important step of enabling the second important facility. 19. the interbank mobile payment services ( imps ) provides an inter - operable infrastructure to the banks for enabling interbank real time funds transfer transactions. what may be one of its strongest points, imps rides on the existing nfs interbank atm transaction switching infrastructure and message format – and hence easy for banks to adopt. it has the potential for the wide reach across the country when all nfs member banks adopt this service and promote this service aggressively. 20. alongside this, with the recent relaxations in the bc guidelines, i believe that all the building blocks are in place. now it is entirely up to the various stake holders to take the product forward. more importantly, what has been facilitated by npci today can be construed as yet another step towards achieving its stated vision of becoming a true umbrella organisation for retail payments in this country. i hope npci will continue to show equal enthusiasm in commissioning and completing other important projects like the cheque truncation and the much awaited india card. 21. i too join mr balachandran in congratulating the iba, entire npci team and all others who have contributed to the roll out of this product. i wish the npci success in all their endeavors.

rates ( 0. 7 % in 2011 ; projections : 0. 5 % in 2012 ; 2. 0 % in 2013 ). this turnaround would not have been possible without ireland ’ s biggest asset : a talented, well - educated workforce. this strength is maybe most clearly reflected in the fact that the export sector has continued to attract foreign investment in the midst of one of the worst crises to hit the world economy in the last century. structural reforms true, structural reforms are helping to restore competitiveness and flexibility, and ireland, allin - all, benefited from a much more flexible labour market than, for example, greece or spain. it is true that some of the structural reforms will take time to show full effect, but their capacity to improve the situation for ordinary citizens should not be underestimated. just to give you some examples : the market for legal and medical services is currently being deregulated and made more competitive. this is something that will lower prices for irish consumers, expand activity and increase employment. in the labour market, an important overhaul of employment contracts has been announced. this should lead to a more modern and flexible system to align wages to productivity in particular sectors or firms. this will improve prospects for domestic firms to hire staff. a long way to go … but we must remain honest with ourselves : even though considerable progress has been made, we still have a long way to go before the situation normalises. house prices have continued to fall. the domestic economy remains fragile. and there is still considerable work to do on fiscal and structural reform. this is of course very demanding for irish households who have already seen their disposable income and wealth decline a lot over recent years. it is thus important that also the relatively rich and wealthy carry a fair share of the adjustment burden. worst of all, perhaps, is the fact that a large portion of the population is currently out of work. this makes job creating structural reforms so important. the deep recession, high levels of public spending, a narrow tax base and the burden of supporting the financial sector have all have put stress on the fiscal position of the state. as a result, the fiscal deficit has surged. the government has therefore rightly embarked on a path of progressively cutting expenditures while taxes have had to be increased. but here there are no easy solutions either. whether inside or outside a monetary union, fiscal consolidation would be required, in the best interests of the country. put simply, a government cannot for long periods