Gram Dak Sewaks in rural areas are proposed as Business Correspondent of Banks in Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Finance

27-August-2014 17:58 IST

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 (15^th August ,2014-14^th August,2015)- 

     Universal access to banking facilities

     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

      Financial Literacy Programme 

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

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

     Micro Insurance

     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.  

     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 15^th 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 15^th August, 2014 to 14^th 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.

 //PIB//