slow the pace of the bond buying program by us $ 10 billion per month from january 2014. in the uk, after reducing the policy rate ( i. e., bank rate ) to 0. 5 per cent in march 2009, the bank of england ( boe ) started its asset purchase programmes which consisted almost exclusively of government bonds from the non - bank private sector. subsequently, the funding for lending scheme ( fls ) was put in place in july 2012 with the aim of incentivising banks and building societies to boost their lending to the uk real economy3. japan ’ s economy had deteriorated for nearly 15 years under the threat of deflation. to overcome deflation, the bank of japan ( boj ) engaged in a wide range of monetary easing efforts − including the implementation of the zero interest rate policy, the quantitative easing policy and comprehensive monetary easing, but there have been no easily derived concrete results4. following the crisis, the boj embarked on an ambitious asset purchase program to combat deflation. in october 2012, it announced purchase of japanese government bonds ( jgbs ), commercial paper, corporate bonds, exchange traded funds ( etf ), japanese real estate investment trusts ( j - reits ). in april 2013, boj announced quantitative and qualitative monetary easing program under which it purchases jgbs, etfs and j - reits with the goal of increasing the monetary base by 60 – 70 trillion jpy annually, increasing the average maturity of jgbs held from three to seven years and meeting the 2 per cent inflation target in about two years. in the euro area, concerns over counter - party risk eventually led to drying up of interbank lending by early 2009. the european central bank ( ecb ) responded in may 2009, by reducing its main refinancing rate to 1 per cent and by introducing 12 - month ltros and the covered bond purchase program ( cbpp ). the ecb substantially extended its liquidity provision by offering unlimited longer - term refinancing operations. the ecb also purchased some securities outright in distressed markets through its securities markets program ( smp ), which was, however, later replaced by the pledge to intervene more decisively through outright monetary transactions ( omts ). the unconventional measures undertaken have involved extraordinary central bank lending, expanding central bank balance sheets substantially ( chart 2 ). we learn from text books and the inflation experiences of the 1970s that a sharp increase in base money could be

deepali pant joshi : financial intermediation for all – economic growth with equity speech by dr deepali pant joshi, executive director of the reserve bank of india, at the financial inclusion conclave of dun & bradstreet, mumbai, 26 august 2014. * * * at the very outset, i thank dun & bradstreet for the kind invitation to address the financial inclusion conclave today. i attach a great deal of value to this interaction. financial inclusion financial inclusion is defined as the process of ensuring access to appropriate financial products and services needed by all sections of the society in general and vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups in particular at an affordable cost in a fair and transparent manner by mainstream institutional players. rbi ’ s approach to financial inclusion planned and structured approach rbi has accorded high priority to financial inclusion. we have followed a planned and structured approach to address the twin issues of demand and supply. we have framed regulations with an objective of providing banking services to six lakh plus villages and to create an enabling environment for banks to do so. we are furthering financial inclusion in a mission mode through a combination of strategies ranging from relaxation of regulatory guidelines, provision of new products and supportive measures to achieve sustainable and scalable financial inclusion. financial inclusion is at the centre stage of international policy discourse under the g - 20 umbrella. more than fifty countries have set formal targets and goals of financial inclusion. if half of our country ’ s population were to be financially included and permitted to move from the marginal level to the main stream as producers and consumers of goods and services, consider the tremendous entrepreneurial energies which would be unleashed leading to a multiple effect on the economic growth of the poor. considerable evidence is there which shows that poor people benefit immensely from basic payment, savings and insurance services. although, financial services are available to poor people, they are compelled to pay four times the price we pay for them because they are not linked to formal financial system and have to rely on unreliable informal sector providers. the rbi has since the last decade addressed these asymmetries through macro policy interventions : 1. branch expansion with a view to increasing banking penetration and ensuring financial inclusion, domestic commercial banks, both in the public and private sectors, were advised to draw up boardapproved financial inclusion plans ( fip ) with a view to rolling them out over the next three years. the same were submitted to the reserve bank. banks were advised to devise fips congru