Vinayshil Gautam
Cloudy vision can take place due to a number of reasons. It can take place through faulty/dusty lenses, it can happen through cataract, through fog, bad windows. And the list is long. But perhaps the worst type of clouding takes place through empty/incomplete slogans. They cloud the horizon.
However, there are some all-time favorites. Popular ones include ‘removal of poverty’ or ‘protect secularism’. Mercifully, ever since the NDA Government came to power, these slogans have been somewhat muted as popular psyche is registering new messages. Not that poverty or secularism is no more an issue, but its just that people are realising about new elements, while others remain to be recognised.
There is a realisation about climate change, but there is not sufficient realisation that climate change impacts wheat production and the quality of wheat. As it were, with a rise in temperature, food prices too go high. As some people rise above poverty level, the availability/price balance shifts.
Worse, there is an increase in the population level, below the poverty level, (if not more) than the numbers that rise above poverty.
It is strange but true that there is a thundering silence among the political class across various segments on population control.
Be that as it may, it is important to realise that slogans too have their life. A good second line in the hierarchy of the over-used slogan includes the word ‘inclusion’. This confounds even more than it confuses.
The truth is that the process of financial inclusion began in 1955 when the Imperial Bank of India became the State Bank of India. The next landmark was in 1969. This was followed in 1980. There was talk of priority sector lending; kisan credit cards and it still continues. Many Governments claim originality in repeating the past.
However, the truth is that in real world, some numbers do change, but percentages do not. New phraseology is not necessarily a revolution.
Take the case of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) which talks of universal banking services. There is nothing wrong with it. Claims have been made about containing leakages through this instrumentality. There is truth in the claim, but one has to stretch a definition to see how it is ‘inclusion’, the way it should be, if those covered by it have not entered the main economic stream.
The life of a common man remains in a tizzy. Opening accounts is helpful, but it does not cause economic progress. Perhaps the process is being confused for objective.
The answer lies in encouraging demand-oriented savings. The number of accounts opened under PMJDY is large. Several of them have no significant deposits. Credit and remittances need to be customised to lifestyle patterns. Income streams of an average Indian cannot be just a matter of finding employment. There is merit in the talk of servicing, through the business correspondent model.
As of now, there is much heat over how to deepen the penetration of financial services into the rural areas. No prizes for guessing the post office system remains the favourite.
It is a well-known fact that India accounts for 16 per cent of the world’s population and only four per cent of the global water resources. Whether it be the venerable wise ones of the Planning Commission or the NitiAyog, both miss a point. Water shortage effects production of rice and higher food prices absorb the rise of purchasing power. Little is left for pushing industrial growth. The Reserve Bank of India continues to talk of interest rates.
Obviously, multinationals are also looking for their own kill, big four
consultancy organisations remain the favourite of the institutions of the
present Government, as they were of the preceding one. Financial multinationals including banks have their own take. They will come nowhere near the PMJDY. It falls in the lot of the public sector banks to keep pushing for
financial inclusion while the cream of their assets stand hugely monopolised by the socially savvy and politically influential.
Some names of the leading luminaries are too well-known to be repeated. Putting it simply, a desi model is needed to solve the desi problem. The present Government cannot afford to lose the opportunity.
