S S Tarapore, Economist gave a detailed talk about the financial inclusions and digital payments.
Here’re a few key points from his talk
The past present and future are closely intervened. The core challenges for the present time are much the same as 50 years ago, except that problems are becomiing more and more intractable.
Resistance to change is the basic human threat and that’s where we face challenge now. Its here that the present conference will provide a platform for healthy interactions.
Higher your income, higher your return. The depositor has nowhere to go. With current inflation rate, all savings instruments have turned large negative returns. The present policy of artificially depreciating the rates of returns on savings continues, it won’t be surprising if financial savings come down and savers move to riskier assets.
Quality of service in banking space depends on who you are and whom you know. Once I was asked to sign a form which summarily wanted me to declare that I am not a thief…We’re not asking out of the world services, but should be able to provide a quality service at par with airlines and railways.
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In 1980s, each bank would carry a bundle of cheques and manually clear the cheques after meeting representatives of other banks. Under the leadership of Rangarajan the system of clearing is mechanized. Over next decade, deposits are bound to grow 5.2 times and banks would add 400 million more customer accounts
How do we ensure security of the system is ensured?
There’re 600 000 habitats in the country, only 30000 have financial presence (commercial bank)
There was a thought that dealing with unorganized sector would contaminate financial system, which isn’t true.
Poor do not need cheap credit, they need prompt credit…
Financial inclusion should be led by needs of customers than achieving the target
Poor sometimes are undertaking more complex transactions. If financial returns are negative, banks will treat this more as CSR and limit their services to poor very minimal. We don’t want charity from Banks. We need to come out of the mindset that Lower income groups do not have the ability to honor commitments.
600 million subscribers to mobile phones, but no of people having bank accounts are going down. Mobile phones do have the potential to facilitate mobile banking.
There’s a risk that Innovations might bypass the banking systems. Technology providers must respect the role of banks and regulators.
09:30 – 10:00 hrs Registration
10:00 – 11:40 hrs Inaugural Session: Digital Payment System for inclusive growth
* Creating the environment to foster payment innovation and growth
* Financial Inclusion driving Digital Payments growth
* Exclusion to Inclusion Journey for India
* Future business model to drive digital payments growth and financial inclusion
10:00 – 10:10 hrs Welcome and Theme Address by Naveen Surya, Chairman Digital Payment Committee, IAMAI
10:10 – 10:25 hrs Keynote Address by S S Tarapore, Economist
10:25 – 10:40 hrs Address by Anurag Gupta, Founder & Director, A Little World
10:40 – 10:55 hrs Address by Monika Halan, Editor Mint Money & Anchor – Lets Talk Money, NDTV
10:55 – 11:10 hrs Address on “Role of Digital Payments in ecommerce”
Sanjay Aggarwal, General Manager (Operations), IRCTC
11:10 – 11:25 hrs Special Address on “Financial Inclusion for Sustainable Development”
K G Karmakar, Managing Director, NABARD
11:25 – 11:35 hrs Q&A Session conducted by Session Chair
This post outlines some of the questions asked by the audience at the end of Session 1 of Free for SME’s Conference
Praveen Sharma- Where can we find about Govt schemes?
A: (msme.gov.in)
Sandeep Gandhi- I would like to know if govt has extended any schemes for cluster of education institutions
A: Skill development- 30-60rs per person per hour for skill development (depending on rural/urban) Those who wish to get trained will get vochures with which they can redeem in partner institutions and get trained.
Second is to develop entrepreneur development institutions- subsidies are given upto 3 crores (50-60%)
60 lakh per institutions to set up incubation centres
A call centre will be established for SMEs
Dr PK Varma- Helping 200 clusters-what are the areas covered?
A: Industrial clusters
Deepak Kumar-Do technology consulting companies are eligible for SME subsicidies?
A: Local partners of technology providers are eligible for this.
Q: Any subsidy for printing and publishing industry
Govt of India schemes are for micro players. For an investment of 25lakhs in plant and machinery, goi can give subsidy of upto 30%. For investment
Mohit: Does govt has schemes for mentorships?
A: Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitr Yojana is a customized scheme for mentoring entrepreneurs. Mentors and identified and they are paid to mentor entrepreneurs.
Shok Arya: More than subsidies, what SMEs need is a level playing field. There’re limits in terms of turn overs etc. Govt policies are favoring foreign players.
Under new MSME development act 2006, 20% of any goods procured from MSMEs. There’s no price preference. Turnover limitations, if unreasonable, will be taken up by the cell and will be dealt on case to case basis.
New corporation called skill development corporation has been set up. They encourage skill development programs
Questions were answered by Mr Dinesh Rai, Secretary, Ministry of MSMEs
Keynotes from the Welcome Address byMr. Dinesh Agarwal
Believe that SMEs act as a bridge between corporate and consumers; a distribution chain across India
The 1st step towards adopting new age ICT solutions by SMEs is awareness; that’s where conferences on ICT for SMEs like ‘Free for SMEs’ help a lot
There are much better accessibility and easier affordability options available for SMEs than they think
A lot of B2B, B2C and C2C commercial sites are one of them
E-mail and SMS marketing options are available at almost negligible charges
Social Media Marketing is becoming a very strong medium to reach out– companies like Facebook, Twitter, etc. have made it possible for anyone to broadcast their message to a large audience
SMEs need to adopt easy technology like utilising Hosted services like Cloud computing, Software as a service (SAAS) rather than investing in costly technology and the infrastructure required for it
IndiaMart.com has grown from 2 people to 1800 by adopting smart applications for HR, accounting and other important areas
International calls are not so expensive anymore; there are many economical options available. So, SMEs should follow up with their clients on calls even when they are international
SMEs should visit trade fair on a regular basis as the entrance fee for the some of them is as low as Rs. 20. They provide a lot of exposure
