The Jaipuria School of Business (JSB) organised a timely seminar on financial inclusion of faraway people through technology
The Jaipuria School of Business (JSB) organised a national conference on financial inclusion as it is a much cherished policy objective for us in India. The theme of the conference was “Banking the Unbanked: Financial Inclusion in Digital India”. Our economic policy has always been driven by an underlying intent of a sustainable and inclusive growth. The policy makers in India, i.e. Government of India and the RBI, have been working at it for decades as without complete access of the marginalised sections of society to institutional finance, poverty could not be eliminated. Access to banking services for remote areas of the country can truly eliminate poverty and set the stage for rapid economic growth and allround development of India.
The current initiatives of the Government, especially after launching of the Jan Dhan Yojna, has raised tremendous hope for rapid development. Digital technology has created new opportunities for remote access to banking and institutional finance. But the Government cannot do everything and we the intelligentsia from all sections of the society, need to partner the Government in this journey for a new developed India.
Santosh Gangwar, Union Minister of State for Finance, was the chief guest for the occasion who inaugurated the conference through his video message. He congratulated JSB for organising such a well-timed conference and emphatically talked about the government’s initiative and policies. The most inspiring message from him was that he wanted a gist of the talks and recommendations to be prepared and presented to the Ministry so that the suitable recommendations could be incorporated in the government’s policy towards financial inclusion.
The conference started with the traditional lamp lighting ceremony to seek blessings of Goddess Saraswati. Shishir Jaipuria, Chairman, Board of Governors, Jaipuria School of Business, addressed the gathering and welcomed all the dignitaries and guests to the event. He thoroughly emphasised the importance of financial inclusion for fulfilling the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a new wholly developed India by 2022.
Over 200 intellectuals from the academia, banking, corporate and the civil society participated in the conference. During the plenary session, esteemed speakers from the academia and the corporate like Prasanto K Roy, Head, NASSCOM Internet Mobile and E-Commerce Council; Dr Kaushik Basu, Senior National Advisor, Natural Resource Management; Atul Bhatnagar, Advisor - Youth4Work (Former COO at National Skill Development Corporation and Barclays, Kenya); and Dr N R Bhanumurthy, Professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi deliberated on the issue of financial inclusion and put forth their viewpoints.
In the first panel discussion, which was based on the track one and two of the theme i.e., Importance of Financial Inclusion and Challenges and Issues in Financial Inclusion, the distinguished panellists explored the roadmap ahead. Over twenty eminent intellectuals addressed the gathering at the conference and around eight selected papers were presented at the conference out of which two best presentations were awarded in the valedictory session.