staff of the brbnmpl, other dignitaries and each and every one of you who have honoured us by gracing this historical occasion. 4. the banknote paper mill is a joint venture between the brbnmpl and the spmcil. security printing & minting corporation of india ltd. ( spmcil ), a wholly owned company of the government of india, was incorporated in january 2006 and represented the corporatisation of all the security printing and minting activities that were being done departmentally. bharatiya reserve bank note mudran private limited ( brbnmpl ) was established by reserve bank of india as its wholly owned subsidiary on 3rd february 1995 for undertaking the production of bank notes in india. 5. there are several advantages in this paper mill being set up in the premises of the brbnmpl ’ s press. besides adequate land, basic infrastructure and surplus residential quarters are already available in the brbnmpl ’ s premises. cotton, which is the principal raw material is available nearby from and around coimbatore. 6. going ahead, we are targeting to commission the first line with 6000 mt capacity by the latter part of 2012 and eventually achieve full capacity of 12000 mt in another year or so. the estimated pay back period is 4 / 5 years. with the cooperation of the centre and state government and others concerned, we are confident that these milestones can be achieved. 7. today, i would like to recount the reassuring response of shri pranab mukherjee to a query in an interview 1 he had with “ the tribune ” some years ago. on being asked as to what have been our ( india ’ s ) strong points, shri mukherjee replied : “ we have built up a huge infrastructure, industrial and human. we have the largest number of technically and technologically competent personnel. we have the third largest reservoir of human talent in the world. in purchasing power parity we have the fifth largest economy … ” we are encouraged and inspired by your confidence in the nation ’ s capabilities. we assure you sir, this mill, the foundation stone of which you are laying today will live up to your expectations. with these words, i once again extend a warm welcome to the hon ’ ble finance minister and to each one of you and seek your blessings for the success of this project. thank you. http : / / www. tribuneindia. com / 50yrs / pranab. htm.

, ensuring customer protection through transparent and appropriate pricing of product and services, curbing mis - selling, understanding kyc in all its manifestations, managing risks, inadequacy of mis, countering the effects of disruptive new technologies, retaining customer loyalty, managing cost and ensuring growth are some of the challenges that retail banks have to counter simultaneously at the present juncture. i would elaborate on some of these deficiencies / challenges. ( a ) consumer protection & pricing 20. as you would have noticed by now, consumer protection has been a recurring theme in my address today. to say that the pricing of products and services in the banking system in india is non - transparent would be an understatement. actually, i have several examples of pricing being discriminatory, arbitrary and to a certain extent illogical. i do not wish to elaborate too much on how innovative the banks have been in fleecing their customers but let me give you a flavour. there are charges for non - maintenance of minimum balance, charges for cheque return and there are charges even where no service has been provided – customers not conducting any transactions. i can understand that you charge the bis central bankers ’ speeches customer once for not maintaining the minimum balance that he was supposed. but, why on second, third and fourth occasions? so much so that eventually his balance becomes negative. why do you instead not inform him and close his account after the first instance or convert it to a basic savings account? in fact, i find another disquieting feature in the pricing of products and services by banks and that is poor subsidising the rich. i have not seen banks mentioning the yields to the customers of their deposits or the effective borrowing cost for the customers on the lending products. why can ’ t the banks advertise their annual equivalent rates / annual percentage rates on their deposit and credit products respectively? for your retail banking model to be successful, your pricing should be nondiscriminatory, risk - based, competitive and value added. 21. as in - charge of customer service department in the central bank, every day, i receive several complaints about mis - selling of products to gullible consumers, some of which are quite outrageous. believe me, if you wish your retail banking to succeed, you would have to address this deficiency at the earliest. else, as i hinted earlier, the regulators / supervisors would no longer be as tolerant in imposing penalties and issuing strictures as