3,300 villages of K'taka to be covered under Fin. Inclusion.

To evaluate the progress of the Financial Inclusion Plan, the Finance Ministry has identified 16 broad measures for the purpose. Mr Basant Seth, Chairman and Managing Director of Syndicate Bank, and Chairman of the State-Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) – Karnataka asked banks to follow the guidelines in order to implement the Financial Inclusion Plan.

There are 3,395 villages in Karnataka with population above 2,000 that do not enjoy basic banking facilities but will be brought under the banking system under the Financial Inclusion Plan before March 2012. The villages will be brought under the banking system either by simply opening a branch or through the Business Correspondents.

Mr Seth also asked the banks to use the UIDAI( Unique Identification Authority of India) details for opening the no frill accounts.

Business correspondents may enjoy higher salary

There is a good news for the business correspondents . RBI has decided to raise the income of these business correspondents . These correspondents works mainly in the rural and remote areas of the country on behalf of nationalized and commercial banks but considering the amount of work they do, they were not paid well.

These correspondents are a very important link between the banks and the rural population. These correspondents visits the villages and makes them aware of the benefits of the bank accounts . Each correspondent have a machine through which people can make transactions. Apart from this he answers all the queries of the people.

It has been found that business correspondents are even more effective then the actual bank employees. Since these correspondents belongs to the same village or locality the people trusts them and they can even convince the villagers more effectively to open a frill account.

Currently the correspondents are paid between 1,000 to 1,500 but according to the RBI circular now their salary can go p to 5,000.

RBI has set the target to provide basic banking facilities to the unbanked villages with population above 2,000 before march 2012 and the Business Correspondents are a very important link between the banks and the villagers. The correspondents are doing very well presently and working hard to cnvert the dream in to reality.

NABARD to utilize JLG to reach rural masses

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has found an altogether new and effective way of financing the rural residents through Joint Liability Groups ( JLG). The new plan was a success in Kerala.

Through JLG a group of people ranging 4-10 could avail loan from the bank against mutual guarantee .last year 21,000 people were benefitted through this scheme in Kerala alone . Executive Director of the bank Mr Prakash Bakshi said that Through JLGs, the bank could "reach the rural masses including the tribal, fisher folk and farmers in a better way".

NABARD has outlaid a credit plan of Rs 58,159 crore in State Credit Plan for the year 2011-12 of the bank for 14 districts in Kerala. Bank will ensure to provide 100 percent coverage of Kissan Credit Cards ( KCC) to meet their expenses.

Banks asked to cautiously deal with public funds

President of India Mrs Pratibha Patil has advised the money managers and the bankers to follow their responsibility and duties in more professional manner. She advised them to be cautious while handling the hard earned savings of the citizens.

Speaking on the occasion of the Centenary celebration of The Reserve Bank of India she said "I take this opportunity to speak about the importance of upholding highest standards of probity in banking. People put their hard earned money into the banks and therefore , the banks are obliged not to take unbridled risks with that money."

Referring to the recent loan scams, she said that the banks must follow proper guidelines while the allocation of loan. This would contribute greatly towards dealing with the cases of corruption. "All procedures and due diligence, consistent with approved guidelines, must be adhered to, while approving loans by competent authorities as banks play a very important role in building transparent and accountable systems of financial dealings,"

The President was very keen on the role of banks in the developing economy of India. She was very sure that the banks have to play a major role in the achieving the growth rate of 9 percent this fiscal year as well as in the years to come.

Union Bank of India inks deal with BSNL , MTNL

Union Bank of India has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with public sector telecom company MTNL and BSNL.

The bank has already been using the services of MTNL and BSNL for WAN (wide area network) across the country.

According to statement issued by the bank , the telecom company will provide latest network technologies to the bank at highly competitive rates.

All about post office savings account

Apart from mailing facilities post offices also provides several other facilities. Apart from a bank one can also open savings account in a post office. They pay the same 3.5 per cent annual rate as the banks do. The thing that is worth to be noted is that the minimum account required for a post office savings account is very low. One can avail this facility at any post office.

Any adult Indian citizen can open a saving account in any post office. A non resident Indian can not open this account. This account can be opened individually or by two three people can open a joint account

The most important salient feature of this account is that it can be opened with a minimal amount of Rs 50. So this account is very useful for the people who are not financially very sound. Moreover one gets income- tax exemption on the tax that one earns on this account. Under the provision of section 10 sub section 15 of Income-tax act.

The amount can not exceed by 1 lac for an individual account holder and if it is a joint account then the maximum amount in the account can not exceed by 2 lacs. The balances in all those accounts taken together should not exceed for Rs 1lac for each of the account holder.

One can also avail cheque book facility with this account, if one wans to avail this facility then he has to maintain minimum balance of Rs 500 in his account and if one do not wish to avail this facility then he has to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 50 in his account.

This saving account comes with a passbook, in which every transaction is entered and signed by the post office.

If one does not operates his account continuously for three years then the account is treated as a silent account and a penalty of Rs 20 is imposed on the account holder and the penalty is deducted from the account itself on the last day of the tear.

The one disadvantage according to the present day scenario is that this account does not provides with the ATM facility.

Government planning to launch plastic currency

The Government of India is planning to introduce plastic currency in India very soon. Plastic currency is already in practical use in countries like Australia and New Zealand.

"We are seriously considering introducing plastic currency notes in the Indian economy to check the fake currency problem and also for their longevity," Subbarao said while interacting with students of Ranchi University.

The main reason why the government of India is putting efforts to introduce plastic currency in India is to check menace of fake notes. The circulation of these fake notes is not good for the economy.

In recent past there are also cases of issuing of fake notes by the banks or from the ATM. RBI has given assurance that to check this problem they will take appropriate actions very soon.

"RBI is organising several outreach programmes in association with other banks to reach the rural population and the objective is to provide core banking facilities in all the panchayats of the country,"subbarao said

He also said that there is a huge potential of banking sector to grow , as there is still a large rural population that can be included . he furtherly added that our’s is a very fast growing economy and we can even suppress china with the inclusion of rural population.