about the significance of each of these events. 5. the reserve bank attaches top priority to deepening financial literacy. this means that school children and college students should acquire basic proficiency in financial concepts. why is this important? this is important both for you as individuals and for the country as a whole. when children grow up and start earning, they should know their options – where to save, when to save, how and how much to save. only when you are able to evaluate your options will you become responsible adults. this is important at the aggregate level too. when you save, your money becomes available to the government and to other private sector for investment. and that investment raises our growth rate and creates jobs. i want all of your school children and college students to study well, in particular try and understand the world of finance. i also want to request the education department of government of karnataka to do an evaluation of the introduction of the finance curriculum after one year. based on your feed back, we can improve the lessons and instruction material both here in karnataka and all other states. 6. now let us know more about financial literacy. banking facilities are still not available to many villages. out of about 6 lakh villages in our country, 5. 7 lakh villages still do not have any bank branch. at the earliest, banking facilities should be provided to these villages. for this purpose, technology should be used to open no frill accounts. the banking facilities can be made available the door step of the villages by appointing one of the villagers as banking correspondents. bio - metric smart cards may be provided to the no - frill account holders. bio - metric smart cards should be imbedded with photograph and finger print of the account holder. this facilitates acknowledgement for the transactions done by the depositor. their day - to - day transactions may be uploaded to the bank branch either through telephone or internet. the benefit of government schemes may be directly and speedily credited to these no frills accounts. this is being implemented in six districts of karnataka with an aim to extend the same through out the country. 7. we have organized various curricular and non - curricular programmes for improving financial literacy amongst school children. the education department of government of karnataka have revised the high school textbooks for the year 2010 – 11 as per our suggestions. as part of non - curricular activities we have organized state level quiz competition. about 6100 schools and 3000 colleges took part in this

previous report. our ranking on gender inequality is in stark contrast to our claims to being a progressive society and a developing nation. it brings into sharp focus the urgent need to implement effective measures for quickly reversing this position. each one of us, cutting across professions and positions in life, have an important role to play in making this transformation. 9. prior to independence, the gender divide within our labour force was an accepted norm. especially since the 1970s, scholars and activists have challenged the inequalities that had been established and have fought to reverse them. these inequalities included unequal wages for women, relegation of women to unskilled spheres of work, and restricting women as a reserve army for labour. these scholars and activists have also sought to focus on class - consciousness in this discourse, recognizing the inequalities not just between men and women but also within social structures such as caste, tribe, language, religion, region or class. in recent years, the focus of such deliberations has gone beyond treating women as bis central bankers ’ speeches useful members of society and now also focuses on empowering them to decide the course of their personal lives and the right of self - determination. i am glad that the v. v. vanniaperumal college is playing a transformational role by churning out a knowledgeable and empowered lot of women year after year, who can claim their rightful place under the sun. 10. lack of education and empowerment of women is also reflected in the extent of disparity between the proportion of financially excluded men and women. that women in india are much more financially excluded than the men is evident from the fact that as of march 2011, only 21 per cent of total bank deposit accounts were held by women and these accounted for just about 12 per cent of the total volume of deposits. similarly, women availed only 18 per cent of the total small credit from banks in 2011. therefore, initiatives to empower women should, necessarily, include strategies to link them to the formal financial system by providing them access to deposit and credit accounts. 11. however, considering the centrality of banks to the nation ’ s economic order, their role in women empowerment cannot be restricted merely to linking them to the formal financial system. the banking and finance sector in india has emerged as a significant employer of women, though related data suggests that there is still tremendous scope for improving their presence in this sector. the financial sector, in specific, requires its