Financial Inclusion Through India Post Essay Example

Financial Inclusion Through India Post Essay Example Financial Inclusion Through India Post Essay Financial Inclusion Through India Post Essay Dr. Joji Chandran PhD ABSTRACT India is having the most widely distributed post office system in the world. With 1,55,333 post offices, the India post comes under the Department of Posts which is a part of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology under the Government of India. The wide distribution network of India post is one important factor that favours india post as a channel for financial inclusion in India. The search of financial inclusion appears to be a tough task. Sustained growth of the nation and its continued prosperity depend critically on universal financial services covering all people. Further, empirical evidence shows that inclusive financial system significantly raises growth, alleviate poverty and expand economic opportunity. In India, the India post when linked to banks in a gradual way initially through saving and later through loan product is considered to be an effective strategy to ensure financial inclusion in this backdrop. This paper examines the scope of India Post in the inclusion (Access) of excluded poor households. INTRODUCTION Financial Inclusion The delivery of financial services to the low income group at affordable cost is termed as financial inclusion. The term financial inclusion has gained importance since the early 2000s, and is a result of findings about the unavailability of banking services to the poor (financial exclusion) and its direct correlation to poverty. Financial inclusion is now a common objective for many central banks among the developing nations. The two approaches used for financial inclusion is microfinance and Islamic banking. : Financial Inclusion covers a wide array of services by banking sector. According to Mor and Anath (2007) financial inclusion, at a minimum, may be interpreted to mean the ability of every individual to access basic financial services which include savings, loans and insurance in a manner that is reasonably convenient and flexible in terms of access and design and reliable in the sense that savings are safe and that insurance claim will be paid with certainity. Rao (2007) was of the opinion that though the inancial inclusion covers a wide array of services by the banking sector, one crucial area relate to borrowings from banks by the lower strata of unorganized segment of the economy. Further, debt owed to institutional and non-institutional sources could be used as barometer of degree of financial inclusion in the two sectors. Thorat (2007) used the percentage of adult population having bank accounts as a measure of financial inclusion in the payment system. Similarly she used the pe rcentage of adult population having loan account as a measure of financial inclusion in formal credit market. India Post The apex body of the department is the Postal Service Board. The board consists of a chairman and three members. The three members hold the portfolios of Operations amp; Marketing, Infrastructure amp; Financial Services, and Personnel. The Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor to the Board is also a permanent invitee to the Board. India has been divided into 22 postal circles. Each circle is headed by a Chief Postmaster General. Each Circle is further divided into Regions comprising field units, called Divisions, headed by a Postmaster General. Other functional units like Circle Stamp Depots, Postal Stores Depots and Mail Motor Service may exist in the Circles and Regions. Million’s of people in India live below poverty line with the per capita income of less than one dollar per day. The policy makers and practitioners who have been trying to improve the lives of these poor and fight against poverty. This got reflected in the successive fiver-year plans, which had the objectives of ‘growth and equity’ and ‘social justice’. The planners however, realized that rapid growth did not bring about ‘trickle down’ effect, particularly so in rural areas. This realization led to the restructuring of institutions and schematic lending to facilitate better accessibility of credit for the underprivileged. Thus, initiatives in this regard were taken by building an institutional frame work through nationalization of banks, creation of regional rural banks. The government sponsored several programmes and projects to bring the excluded poor into the mainstream â€Å"development†. These programmes failed achieve its goals. And many now believe that government assistance to the poor often creates dependency and disincentives that make matters worse, not better. Moreover, despite decades of aid, communities and families appear to be increasingly fractured, offering a fragile foundation on which to build. Table No. 1. Bank Penetration Rates among working age paid workforce’s in India Workforce Category| Total| Rural| Urban| All earners aged 18-59 years| 45%| 38%| 62%| Shopkeepers| 72%| 65%| 79%| Dairy farmers| 59%| 59%| 62%| Traditional farmers| 45%| 45%| 51%| Street Vendors| 39%| 35%| 45%| Semi amp; Skilled wage labourers| 34%| 32%| 37%| Artisans amp; Craftsman| 26%| 22%| 37%| Home based workers| 25%| 20%| 38%| Agricultural wage labourers| 14%| 14%| 12%| Other daily wage labourers| 18%| 15%| 26%| Source: Invest India Incomes and Savings Survey, 2007 While considering the total number of customers and the total number of branches, the post office savings bank is the largest bank in India. The bank does not discriminate between rich customer or a poor customer. One of the biggest problems in rural India is that the population is not accustomed to formal banking and turns to local moneylenders in times of need. Out of fear for their livelihood, farmers only approach money lenders for special situations, such as medical emergencies, their children’s weddings or religious ceremonies. As traditional banks do not grant credit for these kinds of expenses, the central bank issued a â€Å"kisaan credit card† for farmers, designed to enable them to borrow money in precisely those circumstances. In view of the crucial role of savings, the central bank decided to collaborate with India Post in 2006. The latter looks back on a very long history as a savings institution (since 1882).

Free Essays on Surrogate Mothers

Surrogate Mothers According to Elaine Landau in the book â€Å" Surrogate Mothers† â€Å"A Surrogate mother is a woman who conceives, carries, and gives birth to a baby for another person.† (Landau 9). 750 babies have been born through surrogacy at the center for surrogate mothers (â€Å"Frequently asked questions† 1). Many people do not know a lot about surrogate motherhood, so hey are afraid of it. Many women are insecure and they fear titles on the National Inquirer such as â€Å" Father falls in love with surrogate mother!† (Frank 140). Although many women fear the idea of surrogacy, more woman are contemplating the issue because of the increased knowledge of the process and the additional support given during the process of being a surrogate mother. The increased knowledge of the process sometimes does not put women who know about the â€Å"Baby M† case minds’ at ease. Basically, an infertile couple, the Sterns, went to a lawyer and said they would like to have a baby through a Surrogate mother. The lawyer located a lady who wanted to be a surrogate mother, Mary-Beth Whitehead. The Sterns, Mar-Beth Whitehead, and her husband, Richard Whitehead, met for lunch and a contract was drawn up. Mary-Beth Whitehead after many tries finally conceived and carried the baby. Over the time of her pregnancy, she felt like the Sterns were truing to control her life because of the fact that the Sterns would tell her what they thought was best for her during the pregnancy. Nine months later a baby girl was born and it was then that the Whiteheads realized they made a huge mistake. Mr. And Mrs. Whitehead told the Sterns they did not want to give up the baby and they were going to keep her. The Sterns did not like that and took the W hiteheads to court. After many emotional months of court trials and tribulations â€Å"Baby M† was awarded to the Sterns and all of Mrs. Whiteheads parental rights were taken away. Mrs. Whitehead later appealed the low... Free Essays on Surrogate Mothers Free Essays on Surrogate Mothers Surrogate Mothers According to Elaine Landau in the book â€Å" Surrogate Mothers† â€Å"A Surrogate mother is a woman who conceives, carries, and gives birth to a baby for another person.† (Landau 9). 750 babies have been born through surrogacy at the center for surrogate mothers (â€Å"Frequently asked questions† 1). Many people do not know a lot about surrogate motherhood, so hey are afraid of it. Many women are insecure and they fear titles on the National Inquirer such as â€Å" Father falls in love with surrogate mother!† (Frank 140). Although many women fear the idea of surrogacy, more woman are contemplating the issue because of the increased knowledge of the process and the additional support given during the process of being a surrogate mother. The increased knowledge of the process sometimes does not put women who know about the â€Å"Baby M† case minds’ at ease. Basically, an infertile couple, the Sterns, went to a lawyer and said they would like to have a baby through a Surrogate mother. The lawyer located a lady who wanted to be a surrogate mother, Mary-Beth Whitehead. The Sterns, Mar-Beth Whitehead, and her husband, Richard Whitehead, met for lunch and a contract was drawn up. Mary-Beth Whitehead after many tries finally conceived and carried the baby. Over the time of her pregnancy, she felt like the Sterns were truing to control her life because of the fact that the Sterns would tell her what they thought was best for her during the pregnancy. Nine months later a baby girl was born and it was then that the Whiteheads realized they made a huge mistake. Mr. And Mrs. Whitehead told the Sterns they did not want to give up the baby and they were going to keep her. The Sterns did not like that and took the W hiteheads to court. After many emotional months of court trials and tribulations â€Å"Baby M† was awarded to the Sterns and all of Mrs. Whiteheads parental rights were taken away. Mrs. Whitehead later appealed the low...

Bilingual Education

In this peer reviewed journal article â€Å"A Speech Community Model of Bilingual Education: Educating Latino Newcomers in the USA† written by Ofelia Garcia and Lesley Bartlett the authors find a way to address the current problem of bilingual education in the US. They do so by conducting a qualitative case study at a segregated bilingual high school for Latino newcomers. They base their study off of a community high school in New York by the name of Gregorio Luperon High School. This specific school has a majority of Dominican students in a city with one of the highest drug and crime rates, however they were able to find success with their Speech Community Model of bilingual education for immigrant youth. The main key to this success was to â€Å"view second language acquisition as a social process building on the speech community itself, and not just as the primary individual process. † (Par. 1) Gregorio Luperon High School is a community high school located in Washington Heights, New York. The school opened back in 1991 when a group of Dominican immigrants joined together to find a way to make acquiring English an easier process for latino immigrant youth. They wanted a solution to the extremely high failure rates of latino youth in the New York City School systems. This school began as just a couple month program before students were put into main stream schools but eventually in 1999 turned into an actually high school. This school comes from a neighborhood that has a majority of Dominicans, as well as one of the highest city crime rates, right behind Harlem. This Schools instructors are also all highly qualified immigrant Dominicans who can relate and connect to their students on a whole different level. Bilingual Education is a topic that has never fully been supported across the US. According to the most recent numbers available from the U. S. Department of Education There were about 5 million students classified as â€Å"English language learners† in the 2009-2010 school year. These English learners are at a distinct disadvantage and are thrown into main stream schools without qualified 2 teachers to instruct them. There is very little consistency in these programs used to educate these students as well as many disagreements with states who favor the â€Å"English-only approach. † Gregorio Luperon High School in Washington Heights wanted better for their immigrant youth and found a better alternative method to acquire the language. This specific High School used a method which they chose to call the speech community model of bilingual education. They focus on macroacquisition; which is learning language on a larger scale. The three factors they choose to focus on that have shown to be the most important in acquiring a second language were; identifying with identity and culture, power structure influencing language and the roles the communities play in learning a language. In this study they conducted they focused on specific research questions The Research conducted by Garcia and Bartlett was taken from a qualitative case study where they introduced an alternative method to meet the needs of latino immigrant youth. In this research these specific questions were addressed; â€Å"How does the model of this school differ from and how is it similar to other models now offered for latino adolescents in the US? †,† What are the characteristics of this model that support newcomer latino youths education as well as their English learning language? † And â€Å"What are the limitations of this model This article written by Garcia and Bartlett point out the important aspects of this alternative model for bilingual education used and show how and why these unique methods are successful for these latino newcomers. In this speech community model used by the school they focused on seven main factors. They believed that these factors would be successful and would be able to make youth more comfortable speaking freely, help them identify and feel more comfortable with their identity as well as equalizing the power relations between English and Spanish. They believe these seven factors are responsible for their students passing the Regents Exam and graduating High School. These successful factors used are ; the absence of students who are native speakers of English, presence of native Spanish-speaking 3 latino teachers as the students models. Also the high status this school gives spanish and specific English language acquisition targets. They use bilingualism as their teaching strategy and use Spanish to educate rigorously and Spanish to connect deeply to each individual student. They conducted this study by observing and gathering data and used an analytic inductive approach. They wrote fieldnotes after each observation and interview and began to find connections to their hypothesis. The authors met together every three weeks to review the data collected and to discuss. From there they were able to form the seven characteristics mentioned earlier that they believed would make Luperon school successful in their mission of helping latino immigrants pass the Regents exam and graduate high school. Garcia and Bartlett did a very thorough job in providing enough information in their article for future professors, bilingual educators and linguists to comprehend. This article not only found a successful alternative method to acquiring english for latino newcomers but it also provided a in depth background of bilingual education being a issue as a whole. Bilingual Education is a hot topic today and many immigrants are being thrown into mainstream schools expecting to pick up English without the proper tools and guidance. Luperon however wanted better for their students. Luperon residing in an Latino community with many latino immigrants formed a program that allowed their students to not only feel comfortable with their culture and in their school settings but receive the skills to pass the Regents Exam and graduate high school. Regardless of the undeniable success that Luperon received in this program, I do believe their were limitations to this study conducted by Garcia and Bartlett. The first limitation of this study being the segregation of these students. Placing these students into this segregated high school may allow them to acquire what they need to graduate high school but what about after that? Passing the Regents Exam and graduating high school is just one small stepping stone they have reached compared to the 4 long journey they have ahead of them. Also by segregating these students the English they acquire is still limited and from what they gain being in this program they lose by not being around english native speakers. Is this english they acquired from this model enough to get them a job? Do any of these students continue their education and go to College? If they do get a job and continue their education is their English strong enough that they will succeed not only academically but in Society and in their Community? These are all questions I would have liked to see answered in this article written by Garcia and Bartlett. Some sort of paragraph where they addressed the â€Å"Aftermath† of this study. They did a great job focusing on the model and why and how it was successful and even what the success rates were but I wish they could have followed up a year or so later on students and found where they were at in life. Doing this I believe would have given the study more credibility, allowing me and other readers to see that this program did not just help the students over this school year but continued to carry on and help them succeed academically and in Society as well. Garcia and Bartlett provide the readers with a successful and alternative method into bilingual education. There is such little consistency in all the bilingual education programs provided all over the US, knowledge of a successful program like this can potentially be a huge step in a positive direction for this controversial topic. Just Simply incorporating some of the ideas that the authors suggested and used in their article can be beneficial for future teachers, linguists and policy makers. They believed that the main key to the success of this model was to view second language acquisition as more of a social process building on the speech community itself , and not just the primary individual process. They did this by choosing to focus on three important factors that seem to be ignored in all other bilingual programs around the US; identifying with identity and culture, power structure influencing language and the roles the communities play in learning a language. â€Å"This speech community model of the school provides the oxygen in the safe island these students need to learn and succeed socially and 5 academically. † This is a program that hopefully can be adapted by schools all around the US, to give the immigrants a chance to succeed not only academically but socially as well.

BCG MATRIX Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

BCG MATRIX - Essay Example The future business performance of an organization or a particular division in this quadrant is uncertain. In this regard, the BCG Matrix suggests that the business organizations should invest cautiously towards the identified division in the quadrant of question marks due to the factor of low financial returns. The lower-left position of the quadrant of the BCG Matrix i.e. Cash cows implies low growth but high share in business market. This particular quadrant assists the business organizations to generate maximum profits but is not anticipated to substantial growth of the business. Cash Cows are often regarded as the future of the business organizations because they possess the tendency to generate huge profit as well as cash but with low growth (Griffin, 2012). LG Electronics is considered to be a reputed multinational organization in consumer electronics sector which was initiated in 1958. It possesses in its assortment numerous electronic products as well as appliances that include televisions, air conditioners, refrigerators, mobile phones and washing machines among others. The organization holds both electronics and appliances divisions and delivers innovative products as well as services to its valued customers worldwide (LG Electronics, 2012). In relation to the model of BCG Matrix, if the electronics division of LG is placed at the upper right quadrant of the matrix i.e. Question Marks, it can be stated that from the very beginning, the organization has delivered superior service quality to its customers as well as attained maximum customer support from its electronics division. However, it has been viewed that there lies a strong presence of its chief competitor i.e. Samsung which also belongs to South Korea similar to LG with high market share and provides low prices to its customers. Similarly, if the appliance division of LG is located in the lower left quadrant of the matrix i.e. Cash Cows, it can be stated

Read the passage and answer the four questions provided Essay

Read the passage and answer the four questions provided - Essay Example ut as by that law of out nature, which makes food necessary to the life of man, population can never actually increase beyond the lowest nourishment capable of supporting it†(Malthus, 431). Basically, this means that nature has made it so that humans must have food and water to survive, and this is how nature keeps the population in check because without enough nourishment humans will die, which keeps the population down. When the human population is at the appropriate equilibrium, there is enough food and resources to go around, which makes for a happy society. Thomas Malthus makes the assumption that the more food and resources that are available, the quicker the human population and demographics will grow. Without enough food to go around, the population is not likely to increase as the birth rates will decrease and death rates will increase, which creates a more stable population. Malthus believes that the period between the doubling of the population will be much lengthier if food becomes much more difficult to acquire(Malthus, 431). Overall, these assumption do appear to be valid in that it is common sense that without sustenance, any population is less likely to succeed and thrive. To a certain extent, the argument developed by Malthus appears to have some roots in the idea of natural selection. The overall idea with natural selection is that the strong will survive, and the weak will perish. With this type of argument in mind, it is fair to say that public relief for the poor is essentially going against natural selection. By providing food and charity to the poor, this weak population is being kept alive instead of dying off like nature intended it. Therefore, in the view of Thomas Malthus, public relief should be discontinued or halted altogether because keeping poor people alive continues the process of draining nature’s sustenance for the strong. In this way, charity is very harmful to the Earth and the human population as a whole because the

The role of slavery the global economy today Essay

The role of slavery the global economy today - Essay Example ng labor at really low cost or free of service in some cases and incur little expenses simply in the form of food which is not even provided daily and in most cases provided to them only once in a day despite the excess work they are being forced to carry out. Slavery in the Middle East countries for example is in the form of domestic work at home. These individuals who are rich because of oil money mistreat these domestic workers by making them work unfairly long hours from early morning even before day break to late at night. They have extensive homes with very few workers to provide care for cleaning, washing, doing dishes, ironing, cooking and feeding their pets in addition to taking care of their children. Very many people live in one house and they are also very fond of entertaining guests. All this work which should in the real sense be provided by over six workers with the aid of machines is left for one individual and they are not given food. The usage of expense money for the masters is therefore reduced as they do not have to purchase the machines to make work easier or pay excessive electricity bills or provide monetary payment for the domestic worker (Pattisson, 2015). Forced labor is an eminent issue in some of the European nations such as France, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain among others and the government has contributed greatly to it and is doing nothing to stop it. The tough immigration and labor laws have made many immigrants lack better employment opportunities making them become slaves through being forced into labor. They are exploited with little pay while the owners of the industries and factories where they work in (as that are where majority work), enjoys the increased productivity with minimal expenses of wages and salaries being incurred (Kelly, 2013). Many work also for long hours without any extra pay once their official shifts end which is illegal but the law does not take that into consideration. The fact that the

The impact of recordings on performance with particular reference to Essay

The impact of recordings on performance with particular reference to violinists, Kreisler, Heifetz and Menuhin - Essay Example Many critics have debated on John Phillip Sousa’s argument; however, the most apparent issues that have risen from these debates is the fact that Music has changed overtime. The current society has evolved technologically creating a scenario whereby people can record music of DVD players, disk drives and even download from the internet. The existence of such technology that has enabled man to manipulate music has certainly made music a virtual medium; that is, an art without identity. Even music that was played in the part can easily be searched on the internet and rearranged to entertain the listeners. Recording has played a major role in enhancing the work done by violinists. Many violinist for instance those that aspire to record solo violin sonata with a mixture of other instruments, do not require to undergo a process of looking for other instrumentalists but rather record their solo violin sound. This is later automatically mixed with other desirable instruments using modern technologies. Moreover, modern technologies used in recording have improved the quality of violin sounds through the use of technologies such as the condenser; hence making such sounds appealing to human ear. By improving the quality of the sounds produced by violins, many violinists have the opportunity to attract a large number of audiences. Consequently, recorded violin sounds are usually sold to different audiences thereby increasing their income. One of the renowned violinists who has greatly benefited from recording of his performance was Fritz Kreisler who was born in Austria in 1875. One of his major recordings that were recorded is â€Å"Liebesleid†. This piece has formed the staple of the current violin sounds produced by various violinists owing to the fact that many violinists have used it as a benchmark. On the other hand, recordings have also negatively affected