Reasons for Applying Fellow Program in Management

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been living under severe financial stress for long and are more depending on informal channels of loans like the greedy local money lenders. The money assigned for welfare schemes is not reaching the target sector in reality. Hence, the need for direct cash transfers to beneficiaries, became the priority. PMJDY launched in August 2014, has been conceived as a national mission of financial inclusion with the objective of covering all households in the country with a bank account. The major challenge is, this yojana should not remain as an account opening exercise. The effort for financial inclusion is not new to our country. Ever since bank nationalisation in 1969, many schemes were aimed at financial inclusion. Mostof them remained unsuccessful. In 2011, the then government launched, Swabhiman to bring banking services to large rural areas, where theseserviceswere absent.Butthescheme merely became a paper exercise and no one saved money. The threat to Jan Dhan Yojana is same. The policy makers proclaim that Jan Dhan Yojana is different as it focuses on coverage of households as against the earlier schemes. It promises the coverage of rural and urban areas in a way that the banking facility will be available to all within a reasonable radius of about five kilometres. However the rider is, this assumption appears over ambitious, with the kind of infrastructure we have.

There is also another fear thatoverdraftfacilitywillendupinbadloansfor banksasthe current scheme does not demark on how the banks involved can collectdebts.Itisalso possible that people won’t take these loans as seriously with so many debt waiving schemes available and they may expect the loan as freebie. Lack of training in banking personnel is making theminsensitive to socialissuesand isleadingto harassmentof the customer. On boarding citizen information is a big challenge. Aadhar card is much far from universal coverage in the present and it avoids duplicate coverage. The irony is that banks have specific targets under Jan Dhan Yojana, but they do not have control over Aadhar implementation asthecountryneedsmore timeforcompletingtheAadhar process.

Banking licence should be given to department of Post, it can play a key role in theJan Dhan Yojana, as its reach is universal in India. Mobile banks and micro banksshouldbe built in. Use of mobile devices will make the scheme a successful one.

The Jan Dhan Yojana in the present form is one of the multiple approaches to make financial inclusion a reality.

My research on Jan Dhan Yojana covers developingaholistic frameworkwhichincludes financial education, specialised products, improved infrastructure with service oriented political will, bureaucratic support and constant persuasion by the regulator bank.

I wish, my thesis will be a policy document to the government and banks and helps in the inclusive growth of the nation. I wish to author a book on this policy, once I complete​ the FPM with the prestigious IIM.