The Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) has urged banks to engage CSCs/ CHOiCE Agents as Business Correspondents in rural areas of the State, officials informed.
Notably, CHiPS is implementing a project to set up 8,000 CSC’s, CHOiCE Centers and Lok Seva Kendras in the State.
The main objective of the initiative is to promote financial inclusion in rural areas which in turn will generate income opportunities for the CSCs and benefits rural masses.
CHiPS has taken an initiative on behalf of CSCs to invite banks and implement best fit solution for promoting financial inclusion through this initiative. The scope of work of CHiPS is limited to finalization of suitable bank for CSCs as Business Correspondent (BC).
CHiPS will recommend to CSCs, a suitable bank with final proposal and CSCs are open to choose services as per their own interest. Banks are open on their comfort level to take decision about inclusion of individual CSCs as Business Correspondents as per Bank/RBI Guidelines, officials informed.
The CSCs/CHOiCE outlets across Chhattisgarh are to be on-boarded as Business Correspondent Agents. These agents will act as branches, located all over Chhattisgarh, will be able to provide banking services (Cash-In and Cash-Out) to people.
On-boarded Business Correspondens and Agents will be able to provide services such as Domestic Money Transfer (DMT), Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) and other VAS services such as Mobile and DTH recharges, book travel (for Train, Air, Bus, etc), book domestic and international hotels, broadband bill payments, water / gas bill payments, property tax payments, utility bill payments, etc.
Chhattisgarh is among two other states which seem to be doing better than average regarding number of people living near banks compared to some other states, the Economic Survey 2016-17 report has mentioned.
In year 2015 in a majority of states, people are 3-5 km away from any form of access point (bank branches, ATMs and Banking Correspondents, it stated.
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have persons travelling over 5 km to access formal financial services.
Surprisingly, the relatively poorer states of UP and Bihar (in addition to Chhattisgarh) seem to be doing better than average – with people living closer to the banks. This could merely be a function of high population density, it observed.
Financial inclusion in India has progressed substantially since the launch of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the report mentioned.
Geographically, most of the country has over 50 percent of adults owning banking accounts with Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and some Northeast states doing less well. In terms of active use, though, most states perform less well with a majority of them having less than 50 percent active accounts.
Digging a little deeper, active use is higher amongst males, in urban areas and for those above the poverty line. We look at two constraints to active use: one, physical distance separating people from these bank branches; two, number of persons per bank, it stated.
Currently, as per official records, there are 26.5 crore Jan Dhan accounts (21 percent of the population) across the country. The per capita density of these accounts is relatively high in many of the poorer states and Chhattisgarh has the highest penetration. Of the 26.5 crore Jan Dhan accounts, 57 percent are Aadhaar seeded (for Aadhaar seeded accounts per capita).
While Aadhaar coverage speed has been exemplary, with over a billion Aadhaar cards being distributed, some states report authentication failures: estimates include 49 percent failure rates for Jharkhand, 6 percent for Gujarat, 5 percent for Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh and 37 percent for Rajasthan 41.
Failure to identify genuine beneficiaries results in exclusion errors,it mentioned.
Another problem is leakages – while there exists, in the Indian context, rigorous evidence supporting universalization of in kind transfers to reduce leakages, it is not clear if a universal cash transfer will necessarily result in lower leakages.
Many districts in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, parts of Jharkhand, eastern Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, among others, account for a large share of the poor and receive a less-than-equal share of resources, the report observed.
Some parts of Orissa and Rajasthan, on the other hand, comprise a large share of the poor, but receive more than-proportional share of the spending on top six schemes.
Notably, it may be recalled that Chhattisgarh is among 13 states which had been mentioned in the Economic Survey report 2015-16 as a success story on use of drip irrigation by farmers on their lands.
The results from an impact evaluation of National Mission on Micro Irrigation of the Union Ministry of Agriculture conducted in 64 districts of 13 states mainly – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand – are revealing on the benefits of drip irrigation, according to the survey report.
There were substantial reductions in irrigation costs and savings on electricity and fertilisers .This is because water is efficiently supplied and hence pumps are used for a limited time. Moreover, water soluble fertilisers are supplied directly to the root of the plant and hence there is less wastage, it stated.
Yields of crops also went upto 45 per cent in wheat, 20 per cent in gram and 40 per cent in soybean, the report stated. The resulting improvement in net farm incomes is substantial. Until now micro-irrigation techniques, owing to high fixed costs of adoption, have mostly been used for high value crops. However, recent research has shown its feasibility even in wheat and rice, the report stated.
It may be recalled that in the current financial year (2016-17), with a view to providing secure and accessible facility for financial transaction, the Chhattisgarh State Cooperative Bank Limited (Apex Bank) has been installing Micro ATM machines for the farmers in Cooperative societies all over the State, officials informed.
As per the information received, Apex Bank has invited proposals from 1333 cooperative societies for providing on-line facility to the farmers so that farmers could take advantage of e-facility for banking and other works.
Similarly, Apex Bank will convert Kisan Credit Card into RuPay Debit Card so that farmers can do transaction and deposit as well through RuPay Debit Card.
RuPay Debit Card is beneficial for cash transfer into other bank accounts too.