Salman Khan and Aamir Khan may soon be spreading the message of financial inclusion, if Indian Banks’ Association manages to convince finance ministry mandarins on an ad blitzkrieg that could cost Rs 70-80 crore.
The representative body of 160 lenders in the country feels Aamir and Salman, fresh from the top grossers of the year – 3 Idiots and Dabangg, would be the ideal persons to educate rural masses about the benefits of bank accounts and other financial services.
IBA plans to provide a fillip to the financial inclusion agenda through an 18-month national campaign that will include street plays, puppet shows and advertisement in mass media aimed at wooing the rural folk. The campaign will end on March 2012.
IBA chief executive K Ramakrishnan has already said that the campaign will be a huge, country-wide effort. The government has already asked banks to further the cause of financial inclusion.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had announced in his budget speech for 2010-11 that all unbanked villages with population of above 2,000 will be provided with basic banking services by March 2012.
Accordingly, over 73,000 unbanked villages in the country have been allotted to different commercial banks for coverage through financial inclusion plans. All banks have submitted their plans for the financial Inclusion programme to the Reserve Bank of
The finance ministry is also supporting the cause of financial inclusion and is working on a 800-crore financial inclusion fund, which will compensate banks for costs incurred in providing no-frills accounts in rural areas and other expenses incurred in offering credit in unbanked areas.
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