CM to launch Jan Dhan Yojana in Gujarat, PM nationally

Gandhinagar, 27 August 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojana in New Delhi on 28th August at 3.00 pm. On occasion of launching of this yojana in Gujarat, a State Leval Megacamp has been organized by Dena Bank at Mahatma Mandir Gandhinagar. The function will be chaired by Chief Minister Anandiben Patel. Finance Minister Saurabh Patel will also remain present on this occasion. After launching of Jan Dhan Yojana, Chief Minister will distribute savings account kits to beneficiaries.

It should be noted that recently while addressing a function of Chartered Accountants in Ahmedabad, Anandiben had given introduction of Jan Dhan Yojana and stated:A day before yesterday when I went to meet Narendrabhai, various subjects were discussed during half an hour meeting. The government of India is going to launch Jan Dhan yojana on 28 August. Under this yojana, in entire country not a single person will be left out without his/her own bank account. The banks are given this task across the nation. First priority for opening new bank accounts has been given to women. There was a prime minister in the past who used to say that when Government of India sends one Rupee to village, only 15 paisa reach there actually. Now here is the prime minister who is going to ensure that entire amount should reach to beneficiary on the ground. Money released under all state and central government schemes will be deposited directly to poor person’s account to bring transparency. It is Narendrabhai’s vision that every single Rupee released by government from Delhi will reach directly to beneficiary person.”

More about Jan Dhan Yojana

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is a banking reachout programme for large majority of population deprived of basic banking facilities. With a bank account, every household will gain access to banking and credit facilities. This will enable them to come out of the grip of moneylenders, manage to keep away from financial crises caused by emergent needs, and most importantly, benefit from a range of financial products.As a first step, under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, every account holder gets a RuPay debit card with a Rs 1,00,000/- accident cover. Later on they will be covered by insurance and pension products. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana will be launched on 28 August, 2014 across the nation simultaneously. The Prime Minister will launch it formally in Delhi, with parallel functions at the state level which will be attended by Union Ministers, and also at district and sub-district levels. Camps are also to be organized at the branch level.

Prime Minister to Launch Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Tomorrow: To Dedicate Mobile Banking Facility on Basic Mobile Phones to the Nation

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi will launch the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) tomorrow at a function in the national capital. On this occasion, an exhibition on Technology and Financial Literacy will be organized. The Prime Minister will visit this exhibition. A film on ‘Financial Inclusion’ will also be screened. The Prime Minister will unveil a Logo and a Mission Document on Financial Inclusion. He will also distribute awards to the winners of the Logo contest and the ‘account opening kit’ to five beneficiaries on this occasion. He will dedicate the mobile banking facility on the basic mobile phone (USSD) to the nation.

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of State for Finance, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Cabinet Secretary and Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be present on this occasion among other dignitaries.

Under PMJDY, Comprehensive Financial Inclusion based is proposed be achieved under the six pillars as under:

Phase I (15th August ,2014-14th August,2015)-

v Universal access to banking facilities

v Providing Basic Banking Accounts with overdraft facility of Rs.5000 after six months and RuPay Debit card with inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh and RuPay Kisan Card

v Financial Literacy Programme

Phase II (15th August 2015-15th August,2018)-

v Creation of Credit Guarantee Fund for coverage of defaults in overdraft A/Cs

v Micro Insurance

v Unorganized sector Pension schemes like Swavlamban

In addition, in this phase, coverage of households in hilly, tribal and difficult areas would be carried out. Moreover, this phase would focus on coverage of remaining adults in the households and students.

·All the rural & semi urban areas of the country is proposed to be mapped into Sub Service Area (SSA) comprising 1000-1500 households with an average 3-4 villages with relaxation in NE/ Hilly states.

·It is also proposed that looking to the viability of each centre around 74000 villages with population more than 2000 which were covered by Business Correspondents under Swabhiman Campaign will be considered for conversion into full fledged Brick & Mortar branches with staff strength of 1+1/1+2 in the next three years.

·All the 6 lakh villages across the entire country are to be mapped according to the Service Area of each Bank to have at least one fixed point Banking outlet catering to 1000 to 1500 households, called as Sub Service Area (SSA). It is proposed that SSAs shall be covered through a combination of banking outlets i.e branch banking and branch less banking. Branch banking means traditional Brick & Mortar branches. Branchless banking comprises of fixed point Business Correspondents agents, who act as representative of Bank to provide basic banking services.

· The implementation strategy of the plan is to utilize the existing banking infrastructure as well as expand the same to cover all households. While the existing banking network would be fully geared up to open bank accounts of the uncovered households in both rural and urban areas, the banking sector would also be expanding itself to set up an additional 50,000 Business correspondents (BCs), more than 7000 branches and more than 20000 new ATMs in the first phase .

·The comprehensive plan is necessary considering the learnings from the past where a large number of accounts opened remained dormant, resulting in costs incurred for banks and no benefits to the beneficiaries.

v The plan, therefore, proposes to channel all Government benefits (from Centre/State/Local body) to the beneficiaries to such accounts and pushing the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme of the Union Government including restarting the DBT in LPG scheme. MGNREGS sponsored by Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD, GoI) is also likely to be included in Direct Benefit Transfer scheme.

·Keeping the stiff targets in mind, in the first phase, the plan would focus on first three pillars in the first year starting from 15th August, 2014.

·The target for setting up additional 50,000 BCs is quite challenging given the constraints of telecom connectivity.

·In order to achieve this plan, phase wise and State wise targets for Banks have been set up for Banks for the period 15th August, 2014 to 14th August, 2015.

·In order to achieve a “demand” side pull effect, it would be essential that there is Branding and awareness of Business Correspondent model for providing basic banking services, Banking Products available at BC outlets and RuPay Cards. A media plan for the same is being worked out in consultation with banks.

·A Project Management Consultant/Group would be engaged to help the Department implement the plan.

·It is proposed to launch the programme simultaneously at National level in Delhi, at every State capital and all district headquarters.

·A web-portal would be created for reporting/monitoring of progress.

·Roles of various stakeholders like other Departments of the Central Government, State Governments, RBI, NABARD, NPCI and others have been indicated.

·Gram Dak Sewaks in rural areas are proposed as Business Correspondent of Banks.

·Department of Telecom has been requested to ensure that problems of poor and no connectivity are resolved. They have informed that of the 5.93 lakh inhabited villages in the country (2011 census) only about 50,000 villages are not covered with Telecom connectivity.