, universality of education, and particularly, the spread of financial literacy. iv ) however, such aggregative nature of data masks many critical performance related information for understanding the depth and granularity at sub - national level. another speciality of the database ( findex ) used in the world bank study is that it is a survey based reporting system which may have small sample biases and such constraints are natural for household surveys, particularly, when they involve people in the lower rung of the financial inclusion pyramid. likewise, the imf has initiated the “ financial access survey ” ( fas ) in 2009, in an endeavour to put together cross country data and information relating to the issue of financial inclusion and has published the data in july 2012. 8 according to imf, the fas is the sole source of global supply - side data on financial inclusion, encompassing internationally comparable basic indicators of financial access and usage. it is the data source for the g - 20 basic set of “ measuring financial inclusion ”, policy research working paper, 6025, world bank. it is based on the first round of the global findex database based on indicators that measure how adults in 148 economies save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. the indicators are constructed with survey data from interviews with more than 150, 000 nationally representative and randomly selected adults age 15 and above in those 148 economies during the 2011 calendar year rbi annual report 2011 – 12 ( p. 88 – 92 ) contains the detailed india specific survey findings as per the world bank ’ s policy research working paper and latest status of financial inclusion in india. for more, one may refer http : / / fas. imf. org / bis central bankers ’ speeches financial inclusion indicators endorsed by the g - 20 leaders at the los cabos summit in june 2012. the fas database currently contains annual data, for the period 2004 – 2011, for 187 jurisdictions, including all g20 economies. the fas data covers data on country - wise availability of bank branches and atms per 1000 sq. km. and per 100, 000 adults, number of deposit and loan accounts with banks per 1000 adults and deposit - gdp and credit - gdp ratios. a glimpse of the data is given in annex 2. while such initiatives are most commendable and fill a major data gap at macro level, it has to be reckoned that data on financial inclusion is needed at both macro and micro levels. the latter can provide distributional characteristics of

lax fiscal policies in the past, resulting in deficits around 3 per cent of gdp or more. combined with current low fiscal ambitions, this clearly constitutes a problem. however, with several eu countries in recent history having experienced deficits several times the size of that stipulated by the sgp, the main goal of a framework does not necessarily have to be to strive for a perfect world, but rather to avoid very large deficits. somewhat unfairly, the sgp is sometimes evaluated as if it was the framework of an optimal policy. trying to optimise everyone ’ s well - being, one would have to take everything into account. however, in my view, the sgp has more in common with a simple instrument rule. although not optimal, simple rules have the advantage that they increase the chance of avoiding large policy mistakes – a measure by which the sgp so far has succeeded. at the very least, the sgp has served well in bringing the political attention to the need for sustainable public finances. a final observation concerns the dichotomy of before and after entry into the union. the general view among euro area accession countries seems to be that a lot would be gained from membership of the monetary union and the convergence criteria are viewed as a goal, while a widespread view among the old member countries seems to be that once a member, the sgp is a cumbersome constraint. for a recent study of the sgp ’ s effects on fiscal policy, see, for instance, annett ( 2006 ). characterising the two cases – wanting to join and being a member – i believe it is clear that the carrot outperforms the stick. contrasting the willingness to undertake reforms in the new accession countries with the state of affairs among the old members, the difference is rather striking. it is equally evident when comparing today ’ s situation among the old members, with that before membership. given the importance of equal treatment of countries, it is far from certain that it is possible, or perhaps even desirable, to align the economic and legalistic view, but i believe that it is worth trying when establishing such a framework. with rwanda and burundi having applied to join, these types of considerations are currently a matter for the eac as well. ending on a positive note, i would like to point out that one should dare to be optimistic. if economic and political developments turn out better than anticipated, a regulatory framework such as the sgp should be flexible enough to accommodate such events