X Financial Inclusion

Program Report on finance inclusion

Celebration of Policy Transformations Distribution of Loans under DRI and Mudra Schemes and Felicitation to Bank Officers, Change Activists and Donors

A Program was organised on 17th October 2015 at Press Club, Basheer Bagh, Hyderabad to Celebrate Acceptance of 8 Recommendations of COVA by Government of India for Financial Inclusion; Distribution of 100 Loans to the poor under DRI and Mudra Schemes and Felicitation to 47 Bank Officers from 22 branches, 20 Change Activists from 9 organisations and Donors for making the Project on Financial Inclusion a Success. Chief Guest: Mr.Santanu Mukherjee, Managing Director, SBH and Guests of Honour : M. Prasad, GM, Syndicate Bank, Mr.Iftekhar Husain, Noori Travels, Mr.Safir Adeni, President TiE, Mr.Khalil Ahmad, Chairman & Managing Trustee, Karnataka Zakat & Charitable Trust, Mr.Rizwan Haider, Noori Travels and Rotary, Mr.Nasir Ali Khan, MAK Projects, Mr.Syed Ghouseuddin, Syed & Syed Chartered Accountants, Mr.Syed Mansoor Ahmed, Syed & Syed Chartered Accountants, Mr.Venkateshwarlu, TECCI, Mr.J.Sitapathi Sarma, General Manager, SBH, Mr.R.Asokan, Deputy General Manager, SBH, Mr. A.C. Sethi, Deputy General Manager, SBH.

COVA has been striving since 2013 for creation of an environment conducive to ensure genuine financial inclusion of the poor through a Pilot Project for Financial Inclusion.

In our endeavours Change Activists of the Civil Society Organisations walked with us shoulder to shoulder. The critical role and outstanding contribution of officers from the State Bank of Hyderabad and Syndicate Bank made it possible to achieve this task of making this Pilot Project for Financial Inclusion a success and ensure genuine financial inclusion of the poor.

As a result our Team facilitated access to 512 persons to avail loans worth Rs. 1,06,63,500 till 30th September 2015 with an impressive repayment rate of 99.64% for State Bank of Hyderabad and 99.82% for Syndicate Bank.

To celebrate these successes and to motivate and involve people at large to join in this endeavour we have organized Loan Mela – Distribution of Loan under DRI and Mudra Scheme and to felicitate all the stake holders with whose support and cooperation COVA attained its objective to a large extent.
Further, we are happy to share with you that the Government of India (GoI) has accepted 8 of the 12 suggestions made by COVA in its new policy formulations that would enable genuine financial inclusion and help petty and small businesses to access credit from banks. They are:
1)Single Page Application Forms for small loans; 2) Issue of receipt by banks for loan applications- Single Page Form with Receipt is attached and can also be downloaded from the website of the Department of Financial Services (DFS) at the following link: http://financialservices.gov.in/PMMY%20Form.pdf; 3) Revision of loan limit for petty business under DRI from 15,000 – now the loan limit is up to Rs 50,000 under the Shishu Scheme of MUDRA; 4 ) Revision of Income Limit for eligibility; 5) Over Draft facility of Rs. 5000 to the poor to meet emergencies; 6) Assigning and mandating individual bank branches to attain targets; 7) Using Post Offices as Banking Correspondent to enable people to deposit and withdraw funds from their bank accounts and 8) Using mobile phones to enable people – especially petty business persons -to deposit cash in banks is now made possible by the announcement of Payment Banks involving mobile service providers.
These suggestions have potential to benefit approximately 9 crores (90 million) hawkers, petty traders and micro enterprises across India can benefit if are implemented properly.
Caution: Policies are being put in place- now implementation has to be ensured by the government, political parties, civil society, media and the banks themselves.