against this background, let me now turn to the financial inclusion strategy of the reserve bank and what are the specific steps taken for uttarakhand? it is important to bring the poor and under - privileged sections of the society within the banking fold for inclusive growth. in this context, our recent financial inclusion drive has four key elements. first, provision of a set of basic financial products and services for the vulnerable and financially excluded sections. this includes a savings cum overdraft product in the form of bis central bankers ’ speeches no - frills account, and entrepreneurial credit in the form of kisan credit card ( kcc ) / general credit card ( gcc ) ( table 4 ). second, spread of financial literacy across all sections of the society by creating awareness about financial products and services among the population. third, greater regulatory incentives through liberalisation of interest rates and branch licensing. banks have been given complete freedom to price their advances so that lending in the rural areas could be a commercial proposition. given the lower penetration of formal credit and recourse to money lenders what matters is the availability of credit rather than the cost. banks have also been given the freedom to open branches in centres with population of less than 1, 00, 000. fourth, use of technology and innovative delivery models so that the cost for providing large quantum of small - ticket transactions could be brought down. this initiative included putting in place a system of business correspondent ( bc ) model to provide door - step delivery of financial products and services by authorized agents of banks ; and electronic benefit transfer ( ebt ) for routing of payments of the central and state government welfare schemes like social security pensions, mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme ( mnregs ), national old age pension scheme ( noaps ) directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. in this direction, the effort so far has been to make basic banking facility available to all villages with a population of over 2, 000 by end - march 2012. the progress in banking coverage over the last two years has indeed been substantial. the next step is to provide banking facilities with population below 2000. state level bankers committees ( slbcs ) are preparing roadmaps for banking facilities in these villages in a time bound manner. for meaningful financial inclusion, it is envisaged that banks would set up brick and mortar branches in a cluster of 8 – 10 bc units in a reasonable distance of 3 – 4 kilometers. bis central bankers

chart 3 ). reflecting the divergence in sectoral growth trends, the contribution of agriculture to the gross state domestic product ( gsdp ) declined while that of industry and services sectors rose ( chart 4 ). it is noteworthy that the growth of industrial sector in the state has been significant despite the constraints of the terrain and topography. an analysis of the trends at a more disaggregate level suggests that growth was led by manufacturing, construction and trade & hotels ( chart 5 ). the composition of the labour force mirrored the composition of gsdp. the share of employment in agriculture at 33 per cent remained significantly lower than the national average of around 52 per cent. the share of construction, trade and manufacturing in the labour force remained higher compared to the national average ( table 1 ). however, labour force participation rate at around 47 per cent in 2010 – 11 was lower than the labour participation rate of 53 per cent at the national level indicating higher level of unemployment in the state. bis central bankers ’ speeches socio - economic indicators the state has the potential to achieve faster growth by harnessing the large proportion of working age population by encouraging quality vocational and professional education ( chart 6 ). the share of informal sector in employment generation in the state is very minimal as compared with other states ( chart 7 ). hence, the development of the informal sector is important as it could help harness the demographic dividend bestowed on the state. the informal sector can also play a significant role in improving credit absorption. the standards of life indicators for the state compare favourably with the national average. the share of households having access to basic civic amenities such as safe drinking water and electricity was relatively high compared to the national average. similarly ownership of household assets such as television, telephone and mechanised personal transport was higher than the national average. the population of households having banking facility was also higher than the national average ( table 2 ). bis central bankers ’ speeches notwithstanding the economic growth and better access to amenities, the state lags behind in certain human development aspects. despite high literacy and high per capita income, there is high incidence of poverty and life expectancy rate is lower as compared with the national average. the state ranked 14 among the 23 states 1 in terms of human development index 2007 – 08 ( chart 8 ). fiscal trends the state has initiated various fiscal reforms which include implementation of vat, enactment of fiscal responsibility legislation, introduction of a new pension scheme, imposition of ceiling on guarantees and constitution of consolidated