Financial Inclusion – A Must to Enable and Sustain Double Digit Growth in the Country

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Financial inclusion is one of the key elements that will give a thrust to financial deepening and thus economic growth, given that India has over 50 per cent of the population who has no access to banking.

The power panel of the 23rd Skoch Summit on Financial Deepening- Mr. Naveen Surya, Managing Director, Itz Cash Cards Pvt Ltd, emphasized the need for a framework for enabling and sustaining double digit growth. The Panel which constituted of Vijay L Kelkar, Former Chairman, 13th Finance Commission, Mr S S Tarapore, Prof Bibek Debroy Mr James Shapiro, Head (Market Development), Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd, Dr Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group, Mr Vidhu Shekhar, Vice President, National Stock Exchange of India Ltd, Mr Surya discussed various facets for a “Framework for Enabling and Sustaining Double Digit Growth”.

Mr. Surya said “There is a need for a product that will not only bring this large population under the fold of financial inclusion but also give them the access and benefits to a larger portfolio of financial products including insurance, accident cover and even various forms of investment besides transactions.

The focus of the discussion was to bring the 50 per cent of the under serviced population under the fold of financial inclusion which would be about providing them access to various financial instruments like insurance and investment which will help the individual and bring them closer to the benefits of convergence but also propel economic growth.

The top 30 per cent have all the facilities of financial inclusion, the bottom 20 per cent cannot afford it but there is 50 per cent of the population who needs financial services. Addressing them will lead to market expansion and economic growth.

Mr Surya added, “The need today is of a product which not only encompasses the basic function of money but is about everything from transaction, transfer, an access to digital convergence and its benefits, insurance, accident insurance cover and even investment”.

The need is three fold 1. Innovation for creating a product which addresses the needs of this 50 per cent of the population, 2.Support and change in regulations and 3, creation of a delivery mechanism. The stress was on the need for an integrated channel which will address the issue of financial inclusion, and take it beyond the realms of opening a bank account. Only this will lead to double digit growth in the economy.

About ItzCash Card

ItzCash Card Ltd. is India’s first and industry leader in “Multi-purpose Prepaid Card” business, established by the Essel Group in Year 2005. ItzCash has innovated the entire paradigm of payment solutions across the WEB, IVRS, POS and the Mobile bringing payment solutions to the underbanked and unbanked population in India. The Card offers a portfolio of customized e-commerce and m-commerce solutions in both the B2B, B2B2C and B2C space. The company has the RBI authorization under Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2007 to issue semi-close prepaid cards in the country.

ItzCash has 5000+ merchants and a spread across 2000+ locations including cities, towns and rural India. ItzCash has over 25,000 ItzCash franchisees branded as “ItzCash World” and over 2,00,000 outlets in 2000+ towns in the country under the brand name “ItzCash Point”. ItzCash has processed over 2000 Crore worth of transactions across its various business segments in FY 2009-10.

ItzCash has various business tie ups include IRCTC for rail booking, Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to facilitate online and onmobile payment of property Tax, water Bill in Mumbai and launched Octroi Silver Cards for traders and truckers to collect Octroi at the Octroi Nakas. It has also tied up with Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for paying property tax in Delhi. These services are delivered to end consumers using 'ItzCash' semi-close prepaid cards or by visiting ItzCash World outlets which are authorized by large number of private and government organization to collect cash payments for their services/bills. ItzCash also provide technology and processing solution and distribution and logistics services to large corporate for running and managing their 'Close-ended prepaid programs'.

The company’s product has been recognized from time to time in domestic and global markets. The company has received various awards in last 5years and it has won the 'PayBefore awards at Global Prepaid Expo (US)' for the second consecutive year.

About Skoch

Skoch is a strategy and management consultancy company with work in eleven countries. In India, Skoch actively works towards ICT led improvement of citizen delivery systems and for competitive advantage of the country across segments. These include governance, banking, financial services, health, education and infrastructure amongst others. Skoch team traverses the country to create knowledge repositories of what works and actively engages with all stakeholders from policy makers to ordinary citizens to share this knowledge for advancement of India through learning from best practices.

kavita.bhaskaran@sampark.com archana.pradhan@sampark.com

Source: ItzCash Card Limited (Business Wire India)

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