..FINANCIAL INCLUSION..

Financial inclusion
Financial inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to sectionsof disadvantaged and low income segments of society. Unrestrained access to public goods and services is the sinequa non of an open and efficient society. It is argued that as banking services are in the nature of public good, it is essential that availabilityof banking and payment services to the entire population without discrimination is the prime objective of public policy. Theterm "financial inclusion" has gained importance since the early 2000s, and is a result of findings about financial exclusion and its direct correlation to poverty. Financial inclusion is now a common objective for many central banks among the developing nations.
The Reserve Bank of India hasset up a commission (Khan Commission) in 2004 to look into financial inclusion and the recommendations of the commission were incorporated into the mid-term review of the policy (2005–06). In the report RBI exhorted the bankswith a view of achieving greater financial inclusion to make available a basic"no-frills" banking account. InIndia, Financial Inclusion first featured in 2005, when it was introduced, that, too, from a pilot project in UT of Pondicherry, by K C Chakraborthy, the chairman of Indian Bank. Mangalam Village became the first village in India where all households were provided banking facilities. In addition to this KYC (Know your Customer) norms were relaxed for people intending to open accounts with annual deposits of less than Rs. 50,000. General Credit Cards (GCC) were issued to the poor and the disadvantaged with a view to help them access easy credit. In January 2006, the Reserve Bank permitted commercial banks to make use of the services of non-governmental organizations (NGOs/SHGs), micro-finance institutions and other civil society organizations as intermediaries for providing financial and banking services.

These intermediaries could be used as business facilitators (BF) orbusiness correspondents (BC) by commercial banks. The bank asked the commercial banks in different regions to start a 100% financial inclusion campaign on a pilot basis. As a result of the campaign states or U.T.s like Pondicherry , Himachal Pradesh and Kerala have announced 100% financial inclusion in all their districts. Reserve Bank of India’s visionfor 2020 is to open nearly 600million new customers' accounts and service them through a variety of channels by leveraging on IT. However, illiteracy and the low income savings and lack of bank branches in rural areas continue to be a road block to financial inclusion in many states. Apart from this there are certain in Current model which is followed. There is inadequate legal and financial structure. India, being a mostly agrarian economy, hardly has schemeswhich lend for agriculture. Along with microfinance we need to focus on