the unbanked into the folds of banking system. this will require easy - to - understand documentation process, preferably in the vernacular language, sufficient to meet the legal requirements of the banking entity or the service provider. innovations, however, should not be restricted merely to product designing. given the fact that poor are generally susceptible to events that can adversely affect their already fragile livelihoods, more focus is required on enhancing the staying power of the poor. here comes the importance of insurance which need to be enmeshed with banking products in a seamless manner. banks should institute systems of reward and recognition for personnel initiating, ideating, innovating and successfully executing new product initiatives and services in the rural areas. financial literacy and awareness campaigns for spreading awareness about financial inclusion and financial literacy need to be intensified. this can be done through innovative dissemination channels including films, documentaries, pamphlets and road shows. stakeholders, including the regulators and policy makers, may launch large scale awareness programmes. reserve bank of india is in the bis central bankers ’ speeches process of launching electronic banking awareness and training ( e - baat ) programmes to increase awareness about technology enabled financial services. initiatives need to be taken for including financial literacy as a regular curriculum in school syllabus. training programmes for bank staff, particularly for the frontline staff, should include aspects relating to financial education of the customers. there is also a great need for certain amount of standardization of services / facilities extended by the financial literacy and credit counselling centre ( flcc ) being set up at several centre by the lead banks. such facilities should cover the entire gamut of the requirements of the under - privileged / inadequately informed customers ( e. g. basic financial concepts, appropriateness of savings ad credit products, use of credit cards, financial planning and debt management, retirement planning / micro - pension, insurance, investment, grievance redressal mechanism, awareness about electronic banking and the safeguards to be followed, etc. ). it is hoped that the efforts to evolve a nationwide strategy of financial literacy involving all the financial sector regulators across banking, insurance, capital market and pension products would bear the fruits. customer service and consumer protection along with financial literacy and education, customer service is another issue that needs closer attention. in recent years, the reserve bank has worked towards improving customer service through better dissemination of information to customers and also by improving the mechanisms for redressing the grievances. mind - set, cultural and atti

power failures. to overcome this in the north eastern states, the reserve bank had launched the satellite connectivity scheme in 2009 to provide bis central bankers ’ speeches 100 % subsidy to bank branches in the north - east region ( ner ) subject to a maximum of ₹12, 000 / – per month or the actual expenditure incurred by the bank, whichever is less, subject to the condition that the branches would offer services of electronic funds transfer free of charge to their customers. of the total 1756 branches in the north - east region, 762 branches ( 43. 4 per cent ) had taken satellite connectivity after the launch of the scheme. the scheme has since been extended by another year and sikkim has also been brought under the ambit of the scheme. multiplicity of models multiple technologies and delivery models could be used based on the geographical peculiarities, infrastructure availabilities, etc. too many disparate technologies, however, may prove counter - productive as there will be several challenges like integration with cbs, support issues and people at the operating level ( i. e. at the level of bfs and bcs ) may not fully apprehend all the products and technologies. so it may be a better idea to narrow down to a few stable and scalable technologies and delivery channels and build the financial inclusion products around them with inter - operability being the key theme. way forward meaningful collaborations financial inclusion calls for significant investment in technology based applications, related research and development efforts, comprehensive mis and monitoring and evaluation systems. banks, especially those who desire to have much longer exposure to under - banked / unbanked population could collaborate with technology service providers ( tsps ), mobile network operators ( mnos ), corporate houses and various categories of bcs to develop efficient delivery models. it is heartening to note that a few banks have also started taking initiatives with couple of them appointing mobile service providers ( msp ) to act as their bc. the strategy should aim to create a facilitating eco - system, leveraging on technology and promote partnerships of brick and mortar branches including ultra - small branches with the ict based bc outlets for evolving an effective financial inclusion delivery mechanism. innovative product lines & processes banks have to look at their policies and procedures to develop new product lines rather than merely adopting the complex products of urban india in the rural milieu. providing simple and basic banking services in the form of deposit account with remittance services and small credit facility would ideally suffice for bringing