with asia has increased from us $ 29 billion in 2000 - 01 to us $ 91. 5 billion in 2005 - 06, comprising exports at us $ 47. 2 billion and non - oil import at us $ 44. 3 billion. • total trade with the asean ( exports plus non - oil imports ) has increased manifold from us $ 6. 7 billion in 2000 - 01 to us $ 21. 1 billion in 2005 - 06. india's exports to the asean region stood at us $ 10. 5 billion and imports at us $ 10. 6 billion during 2005 - 06. • india has become a formal dialogue partner of asean, and is keen to expand its participation in southeast asian and asia - wide institutions. similarly, india's trade with saarc countries which presently stands at about at us $ 6. 7 billion has vast scope to expand further. • in order to boost regional trade and investment, india has entered into comprehensive economic cooperation agreements / trade agreements with several countries including china, japan, korea, singapore, thailand, maldives, bhutan, bangladesh, nepal, sri lanka and regional blocks such as asean. • mr. raymond lim, singapore's minister of transport and second minister of foreign affairs, in his article " creating globally connected asian community " which appeared in the june 2006 issue of finance and development of the imf notes : " the rise of china and india will redefine regional divisions of labour and trade and help the southeast asian economies take off on a new and higher growth trajectory. china and india will bring asia into the center of the global economy. ….. the rise of china and india is helping asia to not only grow but to become more integrated. "

insignificant proportion of the latter. this thus goes to support the idea that the extent of customer awareness about certain techniques and technologies would, at times, decide how effective an innovation would be. thus, this presents a contrast to an otherwise appealing concept like technology driven solutions and also highlights the need to popularize the same with extra initiatives, features, safeguards and possibly sops too. the potential of information technology, however, can positively be utilized better by banks and financial institutions in processes relating to prevention of frauds, unique identification of customers for effective adherence to kyc / aml / cft norms and generally putting in place risk based transaction monitoring systems in the larger interest of consumer protection and safeguards. further, there is an overarching need to integrate technology in the field of kyc bis central bankers ’ speeches compliance in the present scenario. that is one more reason why rbi has advised banks very recently to implement e - kyc across various customer service points ( csp ) through appropriate software solutions that can best integrate uidai defined application programming interface ( api ) protocols. thus, it is not need alone that would prompt the use of technology as an option but the associated security features that would appeal to the common man ’ s psyche and attract him to banking innovations. how does one tap the common man ’ s psyche? what are the possible methods to communicate with the customer? a very obvious initiative by rbi in this regard is the significant emphasis on hindi for bettering customer service. the reason and rationale is extremely simple and comprehensible. the use of the official language in circulars, customer centric pamphlets and brochures, notices and notifications etc. appeal to a wider category of people and attract them to banking products. further, the usage of hindi has been advocated in banking technology as well by way of use of bilingual software, which would enable customers to access self operated kiosks, electronic platforms and bring them closer to the adoption of banking practices. the use of official language, local and vernacular languages as well, may also further the cause of financial inclusion, a cause that rbi and banks alike espouse strongly. i would like to mention in this context that one potential, but untested option / method to tap common man ’ s psyche, is survey to gauge the evolving preferences of the customers. how does the edifice of customer service in banks work? institutional structures to monitor, implement and innovate in the field of customer service must necessarily