c

CAB CALLING | April - June, 2009

Universal Financial Access and Financial Inclusion

Financial inclusion initiatives, as of now, seem to be cosmetic. Many districts 204 of the 431 identified at the last count, were declared to be 100 per cent financially included but a close examination reveals that most of the no frills accounts opened are inoperative or dormant. We may rechristen the real financial inclusion where the customer feels and enjoys adequate financial access as Universal Financial Access (UFA). UFA can be thought of as 100 per cent real financial inclusion and could be achieved by 2013. By UFA, we mean that all legal residents of India must have access to savings, loans, investments, insurance and pensions at affordable prices. Transaction ticket size should not be a barrier. The biggest challenge in achieving UFA by 2013 is not technical. For years, the common man got used to handouts, doles, loan melas, loan waivers, etc. Currently, financial products are not designed from a total experience point of view. If one borrows Rs. 3000 for buying medicines and repays Rs. 1000 on day 7, Rs. 500 on day 15, Rs 1000 on day 32 and the balance on day 45, the interest she pays is approx Rs 150 at 60 per cent per annum. If she takes a one year loan at 25 per cent interest on reducing balance basis and repays over one year her interest cost is Rs 400. In addition, in the formal system she has to attend group meetings and make 12 repayments which will cost her. Thats why she seems to choose the money lender at 60 per cent per annum over the formal system at 25 per cent. Thus, the challenge for the formal system is to design products and services which, on a total experience basis, are better than the informal system and provide a path to financial independence for the common man. Even if this is done, the task of convincing the common man to use these products and services is not easy and will have to be well planned and executed. The informal system will do all they can to derail the formal system.

Why do we want the common persons to be part of the formal system? The answer to this logical question is that the informal system works well in a feudal society where aspirations of the common man are controlled. If we want inclusive growth, then we need all our citizens to be part of the formal system so that they have the opportunity to go as far as their talent and hard work can take them. For the country, the multiplier effects of all citizens being part of the formal system are huge. It is, thus, a win-win situation for the country and the common man.

Universal Financial Access by 2013: Is it Possible?

Sanjay Bhargava*

*UFA Evangelist, New Delhi. The opinions expressed are personal and intended to generate discussions. Usual disclaimers apply.

23

CAB CALLING | April - June, 2009

UFA by 2013: A National Priority Movement
Universal Financial Access where every legal resident in India has access to savings, credit, investment, pensions and insurance is an elusive dream that India has chased for many years. This article makes the bold claim that UFA by 2013 will be a reality if it is made a national priority. It further claims that this can be done without subsidies and the cost to government would be zero or negative. Given the inclusive growth agenda of the government, it would make eminent sense to elevate UFA by 2013 as one of the national priorities. One may be tempted to think that these are wild ideas of a crazy person and will never be realized. We would not blame such thoughts but consider the following: have been taken from the work done by committees such as the Rangarajan Committee and Raghuram Rajan Committee. Most of the ideas are not revolutionary. They try to use what exists and is proven. That is the good part. We do not have to invent much to reach our goal. We just need to look at our processes and think in innovative ways to dispel cobwebs of the past.

Autonomous UFA Authority

We suggest that there should be an autonomous authority with the Prime Minister as Chairman and with an empowered Deputy Chairman to make sure UFA is achieved. This body will need to work with numerous stakeholders but with single point responsibility and accountability. We strongly believe that such an authority is required but this again is a how question and there maybe a different or better way. It is pertinent to note that a National Mission for Financial Inclusion is also a recommendation of the Rangarajan Committee. Expanding the role of the NUIA where Nandan Nilekani has recently been appointed as Chairman to be the autonomous UFA Authority could be considered.

When JFK set a goal to put an American man on the moon no one had all the answers. Money and talent rushed in and the dream became a reality; In telecom, the government made money by auctioning circles and getting a share of revenue and taxes. Private capital funded the massive infrastructure required. If the government had gone down a different route and asked MTNL and BSNL to make telecom reach the masses, it would probably have spent billions to serve less than a few million.

Inspiring Goals
In case UFA by 2013 is made a national priority, then measurable goals that inspire a nation should be set. These goals could be
v

Mohammad Yunus famously said during his Nobel acceptance speech, we wanted to go the moon, so we went there; we achieve what we want to achieve. If we are not achieving something, it is because we have not put our minds to it. We create what we want.

v v v

What vs. How?

It is important to distinguish between what needs to be done (UFA by 2013) and how it is to be done. We have done extensive work on the how question which is all in the public domain and can be downloaded from http://www.slideshare.net/sbhargav1. Our ideas may not be good and there may be better ways to reach the goal. It is important that government and regulators should lay out what needs to be done without specifying how. Regulators need to retain control on the how by approving plans and monitoring execution to protect the consumer but they also need to ensure UFA for the consumer. At times, a trade off may be required between access and protection. Our comments on the how question should be treated as one of the possible routes and not the only route. A lot of these ideas
v

Every legal resident and/or citizen of India ( individual and institution) will have a bank account, Rs. 3,00,000 crore will be available for lending to the weaker sections at 15 per cent or less, Cash transactions will reduce by 50 per cent and be replaced by electronic transfers, Every legal resident and/or citizen of India will have a unique national ID and a reputation score such that there are no loan addicts and systemic risk is minimal, Transactions will be highly secure and easy to use by honest people and will be tough for criminals and terrorists,

The goals, if and when set, may be quite different from this initial set but we should ensure that the goals are not vague and that there is hundred percent integrity in measurement. This maybe a wishful thinking but we think our citizens have matured enough to see through empty promises and would be willing to reward a government which sets ambitious goals, involves people, demands excellence, minimizes corruption and reports progress with integrity even if the goals are not 100 per cent achieved.

24

CAB CALLING | April - June, 2009

The UFA Opportunity
The task to achieve UFA is not for the faint hearted. It is tough like putting a man on the moon but not impossible like boiling the ocean. The most interesting aspect is the opportunity. It is clear that a consumer will be willing to spend much more in a lifetime on financial services than on communication services. The revenue that can be earned is more than the revenue for telecom. Innovations like plastic cards and ATMs made consumer banking profitable for the middle class. Now innovations like mobiles will make it possible to provide profitable financial services to even the poorest of the poor. Private capital recognizes this opportunity and is moving in despite the regulatory uncertainty. However, the flow is limited and competition is not fierce. There are no targets that players have to achieve. If UFA was declared a national priority and UFA licenses were sold, we think the floodgates will open and money and consequently talent will rush in. With telecom, private capital has seen how items such as ring tones, caller tunes and so on became major revenue contributors. In financial services also, you may see some new opportunities emerge. In the case of financial services, money lenders are able to charge huge premiums. Disrupting that market by itself could be very profitable. transport, etc., then the aggregate credit need is Rs. 240,00,000 crore. To encourage savings and limit bank costs, the tax free interest rate in these accounts could be zero till Rs 5000, 3.5 percent till Rs. 20000 and 5 percent beyond Rs. 20000 and upto Rs.50000. Designing mobile wallets just for the poor will not work because the element of cross subsidy the rich subsidising the poor - goes away. Thus, investments made now to get a first mover advantage could be very productive. Some of these new techniques could wipe out current ways of doing things. For instance, virtual cards may replace plastic cards. Incumbents who have made investments in these will worry about cannibalization. Disruptive innovation could be a great growth strategy for smaller banks and remember that in foreign countries, even banks like SBI are small banks competing with the large banks of that country. In India those banks, whether big or small, which are first movers in this area will reap huge gains. This is why we feel that if UFA by 2013 was declared a national priority and circles were auctioned there would be many bidders. The circles would sell at a high price and the government would make money enabling it to reduce the fiscal deficit.

Disruptive Innovation and Game Changers

We talked about how Rs. 3, 00,000 crore could be raised at 5 per cent or less, which is much lower than the rate on NABARD bonds, for priority lending. A small regulatory change could make this happen. This regulatory change could be a game changer. If the cost of opening and maintaining an inactive account was close to zero then even low balance accounts can be profitable. A very low cost tending to zero cost account is possible if no documents are required to open an account with pattern recognition, strict usage limits and if there is no physical passbook or physical statement requirement. The new pension scheme could take off if every employer including individuals had to contribute at least Rs. 5000 or 10 percent of annual wages whichever is lower towards their employees pension every year. This means that every working adult will have a pension account and maybe a linked account. Again one relatively simple law that requires every employer whose employees are not covered by schemes like EPFO to ensure that their employees have pension accounts under NPS and that they contribute into that account for each employee. This is another game changer. The PRAN number in the new pension scheme is similar to a

Branchless Banking
Very few bank Chairmen recognize today that UFA could be the growth engine that significantly improves their global market share. Serving the masses profitably requires innovations that could be used across all customer segments and globally. For instance, if they perfect branchless banking in India using web, mobile and correspondents then, they could tap the huge Indian Diasporas globally. In countries like USA, even banks like SBI cannot open huge number of branches. Consider this proposal. Lets say if every customer had a mobile wallet and the average balances in these accounts were Rs. 10000 (Rs. 50000 for some and Rs. 100 for some). The account may be paid upto 5 per cent interest on daily balances which may be exempt from tax and may also be exempt from reserve requirements. The outstanding balances in these accounts may be lent only to the priority sectors and a reputation bureau ensures that defaults on these loans were manageable. Banks could raise around Rs. 3, 00,000 crore through roughly 30 crore accounts as deposits and lend the amount. If the credit need of each of these 30 crore customers is, say, Rs 8 lakh for things like an affordable housing, education, health, entrepreneurship,

25

CAB CALLING | April - June, 2009

social security number (SSN). Every resident and citizen of USA has an SSN even if they do not have any pension savings. Can PRAN be the elusive unique national ID India needs? Can these be issued to all Indians in 90 to 180 days? For rapid and flawless execution, may be, our armed forces or our prospective army of UFA members can help in designing and executing the logistics of issuing national IDs. This could be a major game changer. While these may not be the game changers that we want, we have to think of disruptive innovation and game changers which are rapidly executed. When there is a will we will find a way. in Box 1.

Box 1: Suggestions for Business Correspondent Model and Branch Free Banking
q

BCs can mobilize Rs. 3, 00,000 crore in accounts that pay upto 5 per cent tax free interest on a daily basis. Regulation must allow this and citizens must be encouraged to keep upto Rs. 50000 in these Inclusive Growth Accounts (IGA) as a patriotic duty. The deposits mobilized could be exempt from reserve requirements and used for priority sector lending only. However, to build the right credit culture and avoid loan addicts a reputation bureau is required. India has one of the lowest cost distribution networks for retail products and prepaid recharge. This must be leveraged and there is no need to reinvent the wheel. The best DNA fit for BC is telecom prepaid recharge outlets BCs should not be limited to just serving the rural poor. To have an economically viable model for BCs, we have to think big and serving all classes of customers. There is a difference between the BC and the employees or agents of the BC. The BC may have to be a not for profit company with minimum capital requirements and good management but then the company should be free to operate in a manner it deems fit. Unless banks are comfortable with the controls that BCs have, they will not appoint them as BCs. To keep costs low, it is vital that the BC infrastructure is shared. Just as airlines do not have their own airports and yet compete with each other, banks do not need their own BCs. While there are good arguments for large for-profit BCs, large not-for-profit BCs may be preferred because it maybe easier for them to be more customer oriented and to continually strive for cost reduction as volumes scale. Not-for-profit BCs must attract top quality talent and pay outcome based bonuses to employees. BCs will need to be funded well till breakeven. Foundations could fund them with large soft loans and

Business Correspondents and Facilitators

BC model has not taken off so far at scale. A friend, tongue in cheek, referred to India as the land of a billion people with a million pilots. One of the mistakes we are making is not thinking of shared BCs concept. Just as every airline does not have its own airport, every bank should not have its own BCs. The other is not recognizing the difference between BCs and BFs. Retail points like prepaid recharge shops make excellent BCs because they understand cash handling and recharging an account and do not need additional infrastructure. They need minimal training. Cash deposits and withdrawals or opening accounts are like new products they have to sell just as they sell many retail products. However, using these points to acquire, educate and service customers is not going to work because this is very different from their skill set. Agents who sell mutual funds, insurance have the skill set needed for the acquireeducate-service functions. If some of these agents have been spoilt by high commissions and acting in their own and not their customers interest, then we may need new agents who do not carry baggage from the past. There are several under employed people like non working spouses or retired people who would make excellent agents and would be happy with a small amount of supplemental income. Post offices have been talked of as BCs/BFs and they may be good because of their reach but again they will need training and systems and their organizational DNA may not be suited to this role. People have often wondered why MFIs are not keen to do the BC/BF business. Again the organizational DNA may not be a good fit. CSCs or kiosks are just way too heavy overhead-wise to compete with the other forms and these rely on their major income coming from their BF or BC activities. Some of the suggestions for the Indian Business Correspondent Model and Branchfree Banking are outlined

26

CAB CALLING | April - June, 2009

not grants as BCs will have the capacity to repay these loans and do not need grants.
q

BCs and BFs can make Rs. 6660 crore revenue annually. Some of this will be shared with agents. This does not include transaction fees paid to retail transaction points as it is assumed that the banks would pay these with the BC just acting as a pass through entity.
u

Customer acquisition: Rs. 10 per customer. 30 crores customers Rs. 300 crore Customer service: Re. 1 per customer per month. 30 crore customers Rs. 360 crore Deposit mobilization: 1% of Rs. 3,00,000 crore Rs. 3000 crore Demand Aggregation: Rs. 100 per customer- 30 crore customers Rs. 3000 crore

The reputation bureau can also act as a document repository so that people do not have to give photographs, copy of PAN cards again and again. Fake documents can also be eliminated by setting up electronic verification with issuing authorities. The reputation bureau will be for every one, rich or poor, and the key identifier will be the unique national ID which could be the PRAN from the new pension scheme. A reputation bureau would cut the cost of customer acquisition and credit appraisal. It could also be used by employers and security agencies. The reputation bureau could also be used to identify and monitor household that are BPL (Below Poverty Line) or qualify for various welfare schemes. With techniques such as, random sampling, fraud can be significantly eliminated. Designing a reputation bureau that can get started immediately and becomes better with time is not easy but with advances in technology and database design it is entirely possible to make a revolutionary impact that will help honest people resident in India realize the Indian dream. It will also deter dishonest people. The biggest benefit of a reputation bureau is in changing attitudes towards being part of the formal system. If the common man can see the benefits of enhancing their reputation score, the current mindset of trying to beat the system and stay out of it will change. With the setting up of UID Authority of India with Nandan Nilekani as Chairman, we hope to see reputation bureaus emerge as they are a logical extension of a National Unique ID database. The ideas of Innovative Server Based Smart Card Free Reputation Bureaus are enumerated in Box 2.

Reputation Bureau
A credit bureau is based on documents and on payment history. What does one do if a person has neither? In that case, we need to see the cash flow of the persons and whom they know and who knows them. Generally, lending based on gender or on peer groups works for small amounts. We should be sceptical of scalability and worry about multiple borrowing with progressively increasing household debt which will collapse when fresh debt is no longer available. Pumping more money into microfinance without a reputation bureau and without educating people to use credit responsibly is an invitation to disaster. If lending is done without a reputation bureau and scales to the kind of credit required (Rs. 240 trillion) then, the financial crisis that could hit India will make the current global crisis look tame. It may take many years to hit but the effects will be devastating. We also have to deal with the history of loan melas, hand outs, loan waivers. How do we convince people who are used to this culture to switch to a culture where using credit responsibly gets you lower rates and access to more credit? This is not an easy task and this is where the UFA by 2013 army of volunteers and BF (Business Facilitators) can make a difference. Imagine a reputation bureau which has information on your cash flow, your relationships and your employment history. To build your reputation score, the period that you have been a member is important. This acts as a deterrent for people spoiling their reputations and then starting with a new identity.

Box 2: Innovative Smart Card Free Server Based Reputation Bureaus

q

At Rs. 8 lakh (Rs. 5 lakh for housing, Rs. 1 lakh for education/entrepreneurship, Rs. 75000 for transport/consumer durables and the rest for other needs) for 30 crore customers, the need for credit is Rs. 240 trillion. This estimate may be contested but the key point is that the credit needs of India are massive. Box 1 showed how Rs. 3 trillion could be raised just from savings accounts. Rs. 240 trillion will be required during many years from now as currently households do not have the cash flow to support Rs. 8 lakh of household debt. This touches upon an important issue of the ability of households to pay back debt. Current lending rates

27

CAB CALLING | April - June, 2009

of 25 per cent plus may not be a road out of poverty but a road into a debt trap.
q q

everyday life with a bad one being the reverse. There must be controls to prevent a person with a bad reputation coming back with a new ID. As long as the reputation score algorithm has time in the system as an important variable and getting a new ID is tough this can be well controlled. A reputation bureau combines credit bureaus and learnings from microfinance and leapfrogs existing credit bureaus. If USA was to build credit bureaus now, it would build reputation bureaus not credit bureaus.

At Rs. 240 trillion, a 5 per cent default rate is Rs. 12 trillion. Peer pressure and lending to women are not scalable. India needs an innovative reputation bureau to prevent a nation of loan addicts Four main points, (i) there should be one or two national identity bureaus based on unique national IDs that talk to each other; (ii) a server centric approach is far cheaper than a card centric approach; (iii) numeric signatures are better than fingerprint biometrics and, (iv) reputation bureaus can drive down costs by making the credit process instant and lowering defaults thus making the dream of low cost unsecured lending a reality, are to be considered. The government should invite proposals to build these bureaus and possibly take a minority equity stake and a board seat. While the author advocates a smart card free approach, all approaches should be welcomed by the government. Reputation bureaus differ from credit bureaus. They have data on the customers cash flow and on who the customer knows and who knows them. They have links to document issuing authorities so that they can instantly verify whether a document submitted is fake or genuine. The social networking aspect of reputation bureaus mirrors peer groups and self help groups but at a fraction of the cost and with much greater flexibility. A person may vouch for the character of a friend but may not be jointly and severally liable. If the friend uses credit responsibly, the person who vouched for him benefits with a higher score. If the friend defaults the score gets impacted. At any point a friend can revoke their recommendation. Jointly and severally liable groups can also be created. Reputation bureaus can mimic microfinance group meetings at a fraction of the cost, thus, lowering the cost of credit. The financial literacy aspects and human interaction cannot be mimicked and will have to be tackled separately by business facilitators. For the reputation bureau to work, people must value their reputation scores and one way of doing this is to make a good reputation score a facilitator for
q

Global Payment Switch

Remittances for migrant workers are dominated by Western Union because of its agent network, proprietary switch and regulatory clearances. A Global Payment Switch with all retailers who do prepaid telecom as agents would reduce the cost of remittances for migrant workers by over 50 per cent. Bill collection is a major challenge for service providers. There is a cost of generating the bill, printing it, distributing it, collecting it and posting the payment to the right account. In addition, the cost of money for individuals is much less than that for companies. Taking all these into account, the Global Payment Switch could facilitate bill payments for small and big billers where friction is reduced and all parties benefit. With the Global Payment Switch, directed loans also become possible. A loan giver can ensure that the loan proceeds are sent directly for purchase of seeds, pesticides, farm equipment, etc. A lender to retail shops can pay suppliers to the retail shop so that they are certain that a loan meant for working capital for the retailer is not diverted to buy gold, property or stocks. From a social standpoint, probably, the biggest benefit will be in the area of mass payments such as NREGA payments and welfare payments. In addition, it will become possible to eliminate subsidies and pay poorer people directly. The vast Public Distribution System could be dismantled entirely. Goods will be available to rich and poor at market prices but poorer people will get welfare payments through the Global Payment Switch. Educational institutions will be able to charge market prices but poorer students will receive money to pay the fees. The revenues, on a conservative estimate, for the switch providers and end customer providers are very high. Indian revenues could be Rs. 3000 crore per year while global revenues could exceed $6 billion annually.

28

CAB CALLING | April - June, 2009

KYC Requirements
In a country where lot of people have no documents and fake documents are rampant, we are fooling ourselves when we think that document based KYC protects us from anti money laundering and helps us in combating the financing of terrorism. The current system makes it difficult for honest people while criminals/terrorists find ways around it, so you get the worst of both worlds. Regulators can say that they have recognized this and have limited KYC where a letter from a panchayat official is enough. There is always the problem of panchayat functionary demanding a bribe and/or the institution inability to determine if the letter is a fake or not. For a criminal or terrorist it will be quite easy to fake this document. Lets for the moment make a radical departure. Lets say to open an account one needs no document. Initially the account has strict usage limits. These accounts can receive money from welfare payments and upto say Rs. 3000 a month from third parties. Within 90 days, she has to submit a voter ID card number or unique national ID and then usage limits may be relaxed after the voter ID is electronically verified by sending the picture to the retail transacting point. Every adult citizen must have a voter ID/unique national ID. It gives people one more reason to get a voter ID card and meets the KYC requirement. A system based on usage limits and pattern recognition and one standard document is much better. It may also help prevent terrorist activity as suspicious patterns will be monitored and reported. scales. Smart cards offer a non telecom based solution but mobiles talk more intelligently than smart cards. Regulators and the government should be agnostic as to whether smart cards are better or mobiles are better. They should encourage both. It is quite likely that people like the fact that they have a physical card. Maybe mobiles will evolve such that you personalize your mobile and it serves the status and comfort feelings of a personal device.

Vested Interests
As with any major change there are going to be winners and losers. Incumbents do not want change and do all they can to block it. People whose jobs depend on existing poverty will have to get new ones if poverty is eradicated. Poor people work for less wages. Wars have been fought over the abolition of slavery. We want to eradicate poverty so that we can live in a safer world as poverty leads to a lot of social ills like terrorism, separatist movements, etc. The winners will gain financially if poverty is eradicated so all of us should think like winners. The forces of change are strong and hence the slogan adapt or die is more applicable than ever before. At the same time, incumbents are very smart and have a lot of money power. They will continue to disrupt and block change unless they see a clear signal from regulators and government. The ones with most to lose are large companies such as Visa, MasterCard, and Western Union. Paradoxically these are the companies that could be major players in the new world. Historically, whenever there is a major inflexion point the large incumbents get disrupted. The resistance from the informal sector in blocking change cannot also be under estimated. Money lenders, criminals, extremists, terrorists and many others will not want change.

Telecom and Financial Services

One comment we have heard is that telecom and financial services are very different like apples and oranges and, therefore, lessons from telecom cannot be applied. A lot of what telecom does is similar but the key difference is in scalable risk management because of the value exchanged (much more than telecom) and in the fungibility of money (much more than talk time). Most telecom players do not understand the capital and risk management requirements for a system that can move $1600 trillion every year (Boston Consulting Group 2000 Study). Banks do not understand how to leverage mobiles and create distribution as telecom does. Banks and telecom operators need to work together to build a solution that

Conclusion and Recommendations

1. Make UFA by 2013 a national priority and set up an empowered National Mission for Financial Inclusion (NaMFI) as suggested in the Rangarajan Committee. NaMFI should auction Inclusive Growth licenses for circles similar to telecom where targets for real inclusion are committed to and there are severe penalties for not meeting targets. NaMFI should be a single window and commit to fast tracking approvals that may be required by winning bidders.

2.

29

CAB CALLING | April - June, 2009

8. Large not-forprofit BCs should be encouraged with minimum c a p i t a l requirements and all micro management restrictions s u c h a s distance and type of agents that BCs can use should be abolished RBI should actively encourage banks to seek innovative solutions that are prudent and pragmatic and not be constrained by the guideline it may issue from time to time. There should be a single window at the RBI with very quick turnaround for banks to use. Banks must report usage, inactive accounts and loss data to the RBI and the RBI should report it to the public in a manner which enables the public to judge how much work still needs to be done. It should not report in a manner where government, regulators, banks and other players can feel good about achieving cosmetic targets. RBI should make it amply clear that it supports innovation, cross subsidies and branchless banking by creating a level paying field and being very proactive. It should allow controlled risk taking recognizing that some experiments may fail and endcustomers may have to be compensated. The potential loss that may be incurred has to be balanced with the cost of going too slow.

9. 3. NaMFI should also invite bids for the Reputation Bureau and the Global Payment Switch and also see how it can get a common infrastructure built that lowers the AML and CFT compliance load on banks. The PRAN number under NPS should become the new unique national ID and a logistics plan should be devised such that every legal resident in India and every Indian citizen have a unique in PRAN and no individual has two PRANs. This should be complete in 90-180 days. This could be combined with a clean up of the electoral rolls such that all citizens over 18 have a voter ID. Alternatively the unique national ID could be the voter ID for all citizens who are over 18. To open NPS accounts / inclusive growth accounts (IGA) the only requirement should be the unique national ID. No other document is required. Initially usage limits will be adequate but low. People who have regular bank accounts can link their regular accounts to get higher usage limits Every legal resident should have an IGA with banks that pay upto 5 per cent tax free interest on daily balances. These accounts could be linked to the NPS account. Banks need not keep regulatory reserves on these deposits but must use them for priority sector lending only. A law should be passed for all employers whose employees are not under EPFO or a similar pension scheme to pay 10 per cent of annual wages or Rs. 5000 whichever is lower into the NPS account of their employee. 10.

4.

11.

5.

6.

7.

To us, UFA by 2013 is an imperative which must be achieved. Given the enormity of the task, the numerous stake holders, and the attitudinal change it requires, the chances of success will be greater if it is elevated to the status of a national priority and tackled on a war footing. After Mahatma Gandhi, the tradition of rallying people to support an inspiring goal has withered away to be replaced by cynicism. We fervently hope that the government and the Reserve Bank provide inspirational leadership that a task like UFA by 2013 requires.

30