a major challenge to the success of projects focusing on improvement of living standards of the rickshaw pullers is the non - availability of a standardized and comfortable rickshaw model. in a country which has a booming cycle industry with an impressive export pedigree, there are no organized manufacturers of cycle rickshaws. in the absence of standard designs, the local manufactures waste much time and effort in building a rickshaw. i hope aif would look into this aspect, tie up with some major manufactures, urge them to build on existing research, such as the one carried out by iit guwahati, and design standardized, modular, cost - effective machines, which can be easily dismantled and reassembled at locations away from manufacturing bases. impediments in financial inclusion of urban poor let me now return to the key impediments in achieving financial inclusion of the urban poor. among the factors keeping the urban poor and the migrant workers out of the formal financial system are their low and irregular earnings, migrant nature of the population, inability to produce adequate documentation, bigger family size with single earning member and financial illiteracy leading to poor money management skills. they are also deterred by problems in understanding language, inconveniences related to travelling and waiting time and other conditions that come with the formal financial system. it is, indeed, sad that many migrant workers do not have adequate information about the remittance facilities offered by banks, and even those who have accounts with banks, do not use them effectively. furthermore, only a few migrants and their families are insured against the risks they face every day. as a result of lack of financial literacy and general apathy, even those who have bis central bankers ’ speeches money continue to keep their savings either at home or prefer to participate in informal savings schemes like chit fund. there is no denying the fact that the informal sources are attractive and pervasive in cities due to the speed and ease and the multiplicity of services they can give. that is why the poor prefer to borrow from informal sources even at exorbitant interest rates of 5 – 8 per cent per month as the lender understands their financial situation and constraints. hence, any time ( 24x7x365 ) availability of credit, especially in times of emergency, is preferred by the borrowers despite the exploitative interest rates. the most crucial challenge in case of migrant workers is proof of identity. the migrant nature of their job does not

close to the target number, we would not only need scaling up of efforts by institutions like aif, but also the involvement of many more such governmental and non - governmental organizations. our experience with the financial inclusion programs has highlighted that unless the intermediaries involved develop sustainable delivery models and are able to run these activities as a viable business proposition, success would remain elusive. therefore, apart from a sense of commitment, what we really need for these drives to succeed is a sustainable delivery model, which other institutions could imbibe from aif and emulate. it is, indeed, very heartening to note that the aif has chosen to focus on the subject of financial inclusion of urban poor for its annual seminar and i compliment the foundation for this. as you all know, financial inclusion has been a key area of focus for the reserve bank of india and i firmly believe that forums such as this provide us an opportunity to put our minds together to introspect on what more needs to be done to meet the ambitious goals we have set for ourselves. i, therefore, thank the organizers for inviting me and providing me the opportunity to present my views on the topic. though the indian economy has witnessed tremendous growth lately, vast sections of our society have remained excluded from the india growth story due to various socio - economic factors. it is ironic that despite our cities seeing widespread affluence, large pockets of financial exclusion should exist right at the very heart of these cities. every year, a large number of people migrate from villages to cities in search of a better life for themselves and their families. they take up non - contractual and non - permanent jobs of vendors, porters, hawkers, construction workers, domestic workers, rickshaw pullers, etc. these people need fast, low cost, convenient and safe avenues of savings, credit and remittances to meet their needs. however, in view of the non - permanent nature of their occupations, they frequently bis central bankers ’ speeches shift base within city or even across cities. bankers are generally found to be shy in providing them banking services, for obvious reasons. what do we mean by financial inclusion? before i turn to the specifics of financial inclusion of urban poor, let us spend a minute in understanding the meaning of the term itself. we have defined financial inclusion 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