India reiterates commitment for financial inclusion on Independence Day

By Naagesh Naaraayana

Microfinance Focus, Aug. 15, 2009: Indian President Pratibha Patil in her address to the nation on Friday night said revamping of banks and post offices to become outreach units for financial inclusion complemented by business correspondents aided by technology would be a major initiative by the government of India.
“In 2004 my government had set before the country a vision of an inclusive society and an inclusive economy. It worked diligently towards translating this vision into policies and programmes. My Government sees the overwhelming mandate it has received as a vindication of the policy architecture of inclusion that it put in place. It is a mandate for inclusive growth, equitable development and a secular and plural India,” she said.
To consolidate the ongoing flagship programmes for inclusion will require meeting the challenge of restoring economic growth, providing resources to increase outlays in education, health care and infrastructure to meet the needs of all regions and all people, she said.
“The yearning of our people for inclusiveness – economic social and cultural — and the rejection of the forces of divisiveness and intolerance that my Government spoke of in 2004 continues as both its inspiring vision and its unfinished business, noted the President.
The government’s flagship programme towards achieving inclusive development like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has proved to be an effective social protection measure and the largest programme in the world for rural reconstruction, she commented.
On healthcare front, she said the government would expand the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to cover all families below the poverty line in the next five years, besides addressing malnutrition through local civic bodies like panchayats.

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