MyGov: Financial Inclusion Plan gets impetus from ‘Creative Corner’

July 31, 2014

The new Narendra Modi led Government has taken up the task of Comprehensive Financial Inclusion. It is projected to be achieved by August 2018 with basic banking accounts for everyone by August 2015. Comprehensive Financial Inclusion intends to make banking services accessible to every household in the country.
The objective is to empower the weaker strata of the society with primary focus on farmers and marginalized laborers. Notwithstanding the fact that almost 70% of Indians living in rural areas, even after 67 years of independence only 38.2% of total bank branches and 14.58% of ATMs are there in rural areas. Due to the absence of banks, money lenders in rural areas continue to exploit the poor by charging extortionate interest rates.
‘Creative Corner’:
The recently launched web portal MyGov has Creative Corner through which various Ministries can invite creative inputs on issues relating to their departments. In a first, the Finance Ministry has invited designs for logo, name and tagline for their financial inclusion programme. To encourage wider participation there is an open competition with a winning prize of Rs 50,000. The last date of submission is August 7, 2014.
The Creative Corner also has another invitation — Designs and a concept plan for mobile app of PMOs website.