the banks to make financial inclusion congruent with their business models. banks must view financial inclusion as a viable business model. ( iii ) banks must view financial inclusion as a huge business opportunity and perfect their delivery models. bc based delivery model has been made more flexible and inclusive. ( iv ) for effective implementation of the financial inclusion strategies, banks must fix technology aspects first including completion of core banking solution ( cbs ) in all their branches and those of sponsored rrbs, and seamless integration of front - end devices with the back - end systems. without this, it would not be possible to scale up the activities. ( v ) there is a need to increase the bouquet of products currently being offered. during discussions on their fips, banks have been advised to provide a minimum of four products to the account holder, viz : ( a ) a savings cum overdraft account ( b ) a pure savings account, ideally a recurring or variable recurring deposit ( c ) a remittance product to facilitate ebt and other remittances, and ( d ) entrepreneurial credit products like a general purpose credit card ( gcc ) or a kisan credit card ( kcc ) apart from these minimum basic products, banks can offer any other product like insurance, mutual funds, etc. to the account holders. ( vi ) on the issue of coverage, we have clarified that for a village to be considered covered by banking services, either a bank branch has to be present or a bc has to be visiting / present in that village. there must be a bifurcation between villages with more than 2000 population and those with less than 2000 population. the plan needs to cover in an integrated manner both categories of villages. the name of the bc / branch covering a particular village needs to be indicated on the banks website. ( vii ) special focus on financial inclusion at urban and metro centers through a functional approach. ( viii ) involve all the stakeholders in the process. governments, both central and state, ngos, technology vendors, industry associations, insurance and mutual fund companies, society at large. ( ix ) rbi ’ s efforts have been to remove all regulatory bottlenecks for facilitating greater financial inclusion. pricing has also been made free. myths about financial inclusion let me now come to a couple of myths surrounding financial inclusion and the first 12. of which is that banks are not willing to do greater financial inclusion. in reality, the truth is that without appropriate technology, they could not have done it

which benefits the economy as resources become available for efficient payment mechanism and allocation. the empirical evidence shows that countries with large proportion of population excluded from the formal financial system also show higher poverty ratios and higher inequality. if we are talking of financial stability, economic stability and inclusive growth with stability, it is not possible without achieving financial inclusion. thus financial inclusion is no longer a policy choice but is a policy compulsion today. and banking is a key driver for inclusive growth. however, we must bear in mind that apart from the supply side factors, demand side factors, such as lower income and / or asset holdings also have a significant bearing on inclusive growth. owing to difficulties in accessing formal sources of credit, poor individuals and small and macro enterprises usually rely on their personal savings or internal sources to invest in health, education, housing, and entrepreneurial activities to make use of growth opportunities. what is different this time? 6. the role of the financial sector in the financial inclusion efforts in india, date back to early 60s when the focus was on channeling of credit to the neglected sectors of the economy and weaker sections of the population. starting with 1990s the focus shifted to strengthening financial institutions as part of financial sector reforms. the merits of financial sector reform need to be seen through the prism of what finance could do to harness the growth potential with stability, and financial inclusion represents a critical component of the policy process that intends to make the financial system serve the needs of the real economy. the 1990s also saw introduction of self - help groups – bank linkage programme and launch of kisan credit cards in the country. the present phase of pursuing financial inclusion as a declared policy objective started in 2005. so, if financial inclusion efforts has been going on for that long, and clearly we have not succeeded, what is different this time and why are we talking so confidently about achieving universal financial inclusion now. it is because of the following reasons : the focus on inclusive growth which has become the mantra of the times ; the information and communication technology required by the formal financial sector for penetrating widespread unbanked areas in a cost effective way is now available ; the realization that the “ poor is bankable ”. fmcg companies, telecom companies and other retailers are all concentrating on the untapped rural markets for growth. formal financial sector players also have realized that vast untapped excluded areas have growth opportunities not only for low cost deposits / funds but also for other products such as micro - credit, micro - insurance,