239
objective of making financial services accessible to the common man (For
details of countrywide facilities, see RBI, 2008: 306-307). Second, KYC norms
for opening accounts with balances not exceeding
`
50,000 and for credit
not exceeding
`
1,00,000 in a year, were simplified. Third, besides the use of
Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) which have been in vogue since 1998-99, all SCBs,
including RRBs, were advised to introduce a General Purpose Credit Card
(GCC) facility up to
`
25,000 at their rural and semi-urban branches. Limits
are to be sanctioned without any collaterals or insistence on purpose and 50%
of GCC loans are initially treated as priority sector lending but in May 2008,
this limit was raised to 100%. Fourth, under the scheme of achieving 100%
financial inclusion in selected districts, 342 districts had been identified by
September 2006 for 100% financial inclusion, of which 155 districts in 19
states and six union territories had seen the targets achieved by March 2011.
CAB Study on BCs
Fortunately, as late as in March-May 2012, the College of Agricultural
Banking (Pune) has conducted a nation-wide survey of 860 Customer Service
Points (CSPs) of Business Corresponds. As a background, the study reveals the
Table 9.5: Progress of banks* in Financial Inclusion Plan in India
Sr.
No.
Particulars
Year
ended
Mar 10
Year
ended
Mar 11
Year
ended
Mar 12
Quarter
ended
June 12
Progress
April 11-
March 12
1 Total No. of Branches
85457 91145 99242 99771
8097
2 No. of Rural Branches
33433 34811 37471 37635
2660
3 No. of CSPs Deployed
34532 60993 116548 120098 55555
4 Banking outlets in Villages with population > 2000 37791 66447 112130 113173 45683
5 Banking outlets in Villages with population < 2000 29903 49761 69623 74855 19862
6 Banking Outlets through Brick & Mortar Branches 33378 34811 37471 37635
2660
7 Banking Outlets through BCs
34174 80802 141136 147167 60334
8 Banking Outlets through Other Modes
142
595 3146
3226
2551
9 Total Banking Outlets
67694 116208 181753 188028 65545
10 Urban Locations covered through BCs
447 3771 5891
6968
2120
11 No Frill A/Cs (No. In million)
73.45 104.76 138.5 147.94
33.74
12 Amount in No Frill A/Cs (Amt In billion)
55.02 76.12 120.41 119.35
44.29
13 No Frill A/Cs with OD (No. in million)
0.18 0.61 2.71
2.97
2.1
14 No Frill A/Cs with OD (Amt In billion)
0.1 0.26 1.08
1.21
0.82
15 KCCs-Total-No. In million
24.31 27.11 30.23 30.76
3.12
16 KCCs-Total-Amt In billion
1240.07 1600.05 2068.39
2094 468.34
17 GCC-Total-No. in million
1.39
1.7 2.11
2.29
0.41
18 GCC-Total-Amt In bilion
35.11 35.07 41.84 43.21
6.77
19 ICT Based A/Cs-through BCs (No. in million)
13.26 31.65 57.08 62.77
25.44
20 ICT Based A/Cs-Transactions (No. in million)
26.52 84.16 141.09 45.96 141.09
* Scheduled commercial banks (excluding RRBs)
Source:
Chakrabarty (2012)
