RBI Announced Committee to Frame Vision for Financial Inclusion

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 23 September 2013 announced the appointment of a Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Households under the Chairmanship of Nachiket Mor, who is a Member on the Central Board of Directors of RBI.

Objectives of the Committee

The 15-member committee has been asked to frame a clear and detailed vision for financial inclusion and financial deepening in India. Committee is to lay down a set of design principles that will guide the development of institutional frameworks and regulation for achieving financial inclusion and financial deepening in India.

Committee will review existing strategies and develop new ones that address specific barriers to progress, and that encourage participants to work swiftly towards achieving full inclusion and financial deepening, consistent with the design principles.

Further, Committee is to develop a comprehensive monitoring framework to track the progress of the financial inclusion and deepening efforts on a nationwide basis.
The committee has been asked to submit its final report by 31 December 2013.

The committee members are: Bindu Ananth (President, IFMR Trust); Prakash Bakshi (Chairman, Nabard); Bharat Doshi (Chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services); A. P. Hota (Managing Director and CEO, National Payments Corporation of India); Sunil Kaushal (CEO, Standard Chartered Bank India); Roopa Kudva (MD and CEO, Crisil); Zia Mody (Managing Partner, AZB & Partners); S. S. Mundra (CMD, Bank of Baroda); Vikram Pandit (former CEO, Citigroup); Ramesh Ramanathan (Chairman, Janalakshmi Financial Services) and Shikha Sharma (MD & CEO, Axis Bank). A. Udgata, Principal Chief General Manager, RBI is the Member Secretary. Karuppasamy and Deepali Pant Joshi, both Executive Directors, RBI will be the expert observers.