RONO HILLS, 25 Mar: The economics department of Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) organised a national seminar on ‘Financial inclusion and inclusive growth: The Indian experience’ here on Monday.
Addressing the seminar, which was attended by academicians and research scholars from different universities and colleges of the country, Prof Abhijit Sharma from Guwahati (Assam)-based Indian Institute of Bank Management highlighted the four phases of financial inclusion and various policy initiatives taken by the government to ensure financial inclusion of the weaker and marginalised sections of the society.
He also informed the scholars about the changing concepts and dimensions of financial inclusion, as well as improvement in its measurement. Prof Sharma also pointed out the role played by self-help groups and traditional local fund groups in providing financial services to needy people in rural areas.
Prof Mandira Sarma from JNU’s School of International Studies spoke on the role of credit rationing in maintaining stable interest rate and achieving the goal of financial inclusion. She argued that the priority sector lending policy has greatly helped in improving financial inclusion.
Dibrugarh University Economics HoD Dr Alok Ranjan Dutta highlighted the impact of financial access on the performance of informal manufacturing business.
He said that financial access has” significant positive impact on gross value added of manufacturing enterprises, indicating that, along with financial access, steps need to be taken to improve factor productivity.”
Dr Jayanta Saud from Dibru College, Dibrugarh explained the linkage between financial inclusion and agricultural intensification. He said that “better financial inclusion helps farmers in procuring inputs and machineries and thus improves cropping intensity.”
Dr Ashi Lama from RGU’s economics departmenthighlighted the scenario of financial inclusion in Arunachal Pradesh, based on the findings of a research project funded by the Economics and Statistics Department. He said that “financial inclusion in the state has improved by leaps and bounds in the last two decades, but is still lagging behind the other states of the country in various indicators.”
“The state has relatively low credit-deposit ratio and low banking density. Further, the households have inadequate access to banking services, credit and insurance, and have low level of awareness and financial knowledge,” he added.
He called for improving financial awareness and knowledge, extending banking services, promoting businesses, crop diversification, and cadastral survey of land for improving the status of financial inclusion in the state.
The inaugural session was chaired by RGU Economics HoD Prof Vandana Upadhyay. The valedictory session was chaired by RGU Acting VC Prof SK Nayak, who said that financial inclusion is a contemporary topic and urged the scholars to contribute through their research for building a financially inclusive society.
Special lecture on index of financial inclusion
Rajiv Gandhi University’s commerce department’s Centre for Development Studies (CDS) organised a special lecture on ‘Index of financial inclusion’ here on Monday.
The lecture was delivered by New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Economics Professor Mandira Sarma. It was attended by faculty members, research scholars, and postgraduate students of the university.
In her lecture, Prof Sarma highlighted financial inclusion in today’s world, dwelling on the concept of financial inclusion and its importance for promoting economic development. She spoke on various dimensions of financial inclusion, and the methodological issues relating to the measure of financial inclusion.
Further, she explained the method developed by her for the construction of financial inclusion index, which has also been adopted by the Reserve Bank of India. She also dwelt on the status and extent of financial inclusion of the Indian states for the period of 2000 to 2020, and pointed out that “majority of the states, including Arunachal Pradesh, have gainedsignificant improvement in terms of financial inclusion, especially after the year 2014, which could be attributed to the implementation of the various schemes for inclusive growth by the central government.”
RGU Acting Vice-Chancellor Prof SK Nayak in his address said that “financial inclusion is pivotal for faster and inclusive economic growth of the country,” and urged the scholars to “take up research studies to understand the issues related to financial inclusion in Northeast India in particular and the country as a whole.”
CDS coordinator Prof Vandana Upadhyay also spoke.