External agency to assess impact of financial inclusion: RBI

According to media reports, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Deputy Governor, V Leeladhar will involve an independent external agency to evaluate the progress of districts included in financial inclusion initiatives.

One district in every state of the country, having 100 per cent financial inclusion will be selected by the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC).

RBI has also asked banks to introduce more no-frill accounts and General Purpose Credit Cards (GPCCs) with limits of up to Rs. 25,000 in rural and semi-urban branches.

According to information provided by the RBI Deputy Governor, till June 2007 around 70 lakh no-frill accounts have been opened by commercial banks. Of these, around 67 lakh accounts have been opened by public sector banks and around 11 lakh accounts by private sector banks, besides around 12,000 by foreign banks.

Leeladhar said that so far, 68 districts have been fully financially included-14 in Kerala, 11 in Haryana, 9 in Punjab, Pondicherry, , 12 in Himachal Pradesh, 7 in Karnataka, 1 in Tamil Nadu, 1 in Gujarat, 1 in Andhra Pradesh, 1 in West Bengal, 1 each in Rajasthan, Diu, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, 3 in Uttar Pradesh, 1 each in Orissa, Daman, Maharashtra and Assam.

In certain less developed areas like the North East, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand, working groups headed by RBI representatives have been set up.