Perhaps the first major initiative of Narendra Modi immediately after his election in 2014 was the attempt at financial inclusion. Which meant the opening, in a very very big way, of zero balance accounts for all - called Jan Dhan Accounts. This has been a major success.
And it has led to DBT - Direct Benefit Transfer. So all subsidies and benefits are credited to the persons - immediately, fully, without the involvement of any middlemen who had become powerful, as also bottlenecks and sources of corruption. Recall Rajiv Gandhi's remark of 1985 - of every rupee spent by the government, only 15 paisa reached the intended beneficiary.
In fact this elimination of ground level corruption is a major success. It is also an underlying cause of a lot of political criticism since not only most opposition parties but several of the BJP ground staff have begun to lose sources of income.
Just look at the sheer numbers - more than 40 crore (400 million) accounts opened with zero balance. What a mammoth task has been done.
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3 comments:
From my friend PS: Manmohan Singh laughed at the initiative not realizing that the Congress govt never made any effort to educate or open savings accounts for poor people. Savings is important for everyone.
From my friend PC: Mamoth task indeed. It had come in handy most during the pandemic where financial help was extended to the poor.
From RG:👌👌
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