that still have the ability to borrow to increase spending. since this will increase already - high levels of government debt, proponents suggest investing in infrastructure, which may have high returns today when construction costs and interest rates are low. however, high - return infrastructure investment is harder to identify and implement in developed countries where most obvious investments have already been made – political influence is as likely to create bridges to nowhere or see the interesting evidence in atif mian and amir sufi, house of debt ( princeton university press, new jersey, 2014 ) and the cross - country evidence in carmen reinhart and kenneth rogoff, this time is different ( princeton university press, new jersey, 2008 ). for an illuminating overall view of the global financial crisis and the policy remedies, see martin wolf, the shifts and the shocks : what we ’ ve learned and have still to learn from the financial crisis ( penguin usa 2015 ). though see a thoughtful piece by claudio borio and piti disyatat at http : / / www. voxeu. org / article / low - interestrates - secular - stagnation - and - debt suggesting that the real neutral interest rate may be influenced by low policy rates. intuitively, the authors argue that low policy rates can sow the seeds for investment misallocation, financial distress, and debt overhang, all of which can combine to drive down the future real return on investment, and therefore the real neutral long term rate today. bis central bankers ’ speeches unviable high speed train networks as needed infrastructure. also, while everyone can see the need for repair and renovation of existing infrastructure, this requires far more decentralized spending than mega projects, and may be harder to initiate and finance from the centre. put differently, high - return infrastructure investment is a good idea but may be hard to implement on a large scale for most advanced country governments. to the extent that such debt fuelled spending creates a self - fulfilling virtuous cycle of confidence and activity, it can be a bridge to sustainable growth. but to the extent that it misallocates capital ( because there are insufficient “ shovel - ready ” projects, so much of the emergency spending is diverted to rent - seeking pork ), it can worsen public anxieties about the future, reducing corporate investment and increasing household savings. all this highlights another concern. even if stimulus works in raising growth temporarily – and the above discussion suggests it may not – this growth has to be

mechanism under the institutional mechanism put in place for financial inclusion, we have the financial stability and development council ( fsdc ), which has an exclusive mandate for financial inclusion and financial literacy. a separate technical group on financial inclusion and financial literacy, under the chairmanship of a deputy governor, has been set up under the aegis of fsdc. the group has representations from all the financial sector regulators. in order to spearhead efforts towards greater financial inclusion, rbi has constituted a financial inclusion advisory committee ( fiac ) under the chairmanship of deputy governor. the fiac has few directors from the central board of rbi and experts drawn from ngo sector / other civil society representatives, etc. as members. at the state level, there are state level bankers committee ( slbc ) further supported by lead district managers ( 671 districts ) at the district level. bis central bankers ’ speeches bank led model in india, we have adopted a bank - led model for financial inclusion, which seeks to leverage on technology. the fi initiatives would have to be ict based and would ride on new delivery models that would need to be developed by the market participants to best suit their requirements. our experience has shown that the goal of financial inclusion is better served through mainstream banking institutions as only they have the ability to offer the suite of products required to bring in effective / meaningful financial inclusion. other players such as mobile companies have been allowed to partner with banks in offering services collaboratively. integrated approach – financial inclusion & financial literacy considering that financial literacy is an important adjunct for promoting financial inclusion, consumer protection and ultimately financial stability, rbi has adopted an integrated approach wherein efforts towards financial inclusion and financial literacy would go hand in hand. bouquet of financial products in the absence of banks a large number of informal intermediaries had mushroomed, mostly in the rural areas, which were acting as proxy to the banks. such unregulated entities were in the business of extending only credit products that too at exorbitant rates of interest mostly to the illiterate section of the population. this had resulted in huge indebtedness amongst the poor people. with our renewed efforts under financial inclusion we have now advised banks to ensure that all the financial needs of the customers are met by offering, at the minimum, four basic products to customers, viz. the idea is to ensure that customers who are linked to the banking system is provided with all the basic financial products that are required to enhance their income generation capacity thus helping them