06/01/2021 - Governance

KEY POINTS

·        In rural India, an over-reliance on digital technology alone has widened the distance between the rights holder and their entitlements.

·        The Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) initiative is a technology induced step in improving financial inclusion among other stated goals.

·        Various government programmes such as maternity entitlements, student scholarships, wages for MGNREGA workers fall under the DBT initiative where money is transferred to the bank accounts of the respective beneficiaries.

·        Customer Service Points (CSP) and Banking Correspondents (BC) were promoted to provide last mile service to rural areas.

Criticisms

·        Workers have little clue about where their wages have been credited often due to technical reasons such as incorrect account numbers and incorrect Aadhaar mapping with bank accounts.

·        The lack of any accountability for APBS and AePS and absence of grievance redressed would continue to impact all DBT programmes.

·        The workers/beneficiaries have rarely been consulted regarding their preferred mode of transacting.

·        The only way for rural bank users to keep track of their finances is through their bank passbooks. However, more than two-thirds of time workers were denied the facility to update their passbooks at banks.

·        A technological intervention must have a governance framework in which protection of rights must be fundamental and which provides more choices to the marginalised.

Sir, I haven't received any comment on my answer posted on 06/01/2021 from Shankar IAS team . Please Comment ! Thank You !

Please review

This concept is the opposite of financial inclusion. Where most people are untouched by financial inclusion. This situation was found more in rural areas of India.

But in recent years, increasing financial literacy has reduced this concept. While banking and online financial facilities are more in urban areas, now also in rural areas technology platforms have promoted financial inclusion - such as banking representation (BC's) services, common service centers, white label ATM facilities, uninterrupted internet services Specifically expanding into rural areas, expansion of private companies, increasing number of mobile subscribers due to telecom services, expansion of plastic money and digital payment services at stores, government's introduction of various digital platforms (BHIM, UPI etc. and NBFC Granting license to, the launch of Jan Dhan Yojana), access to digital literacy in a wider area, etc.

            But there are still reasons why the goal of full financial inclusion has not been achieved such as - lack of infrastructure in many rural areas, network problems, lack of understanding of cyber attacks in general, insecurity, economic conditions. Not strong

           For this, digital literacy will have to be promoted on a wide scale, infrastructure must be improved, technical services will have to be expanded.

Please do comment.....