Warrier's Collage November 9, 2021

Welcome to Warrier's COLLAGE On Tuesday November 9, 2021 1) Going to a mountain to pray https://youtu.be/W_N5WKC-bJk Good Morning Nice Day M G Warrier A Select Response Vathsala Jayaraman Chennai Collage of November 8, 2021 The whole Issue was captivating with review on Self-Improvement lessons, article on CSR and anecdote on Bhima Sankara and a critical analysis of the book by Neera Chandhoke. It was a review in the real sense of the term. Of course there are many self improvement texts which are used as Management lessons and for social life too. Our scriptures and puranas reveal so many morals. There is Neethi shatakam, vairagya shatakam and so many works and commentaries by Adi Shankara and other Acharyas. We have Bhagavatgita, the life essence, stated to have been narrated by lord Krishna. We have Quran, Bible and Thirukkural and many more pieces. (Continued at H1) B Current Affairs 1) RBI & NGFS Declaration* Reserve Bank of India Statement of Commitment to Support Greening India's Financial System : The Reserve Bank of India broadly supports the NGFS declaration. We commend the co-ordination efforts of NGFS in defining, promoting, and contributing to the development of best practices in climate finance through sharing experiences and best practices for climate risk management in the financial sector. Specifically, the Reserve Bank, keeping in view our national commitments, priorities and complexity of our financial system, commits to: Exploring how climate scenario exercises can be used to identifr vulnerabilities in RBI supervised entities' balance sheets, business models and gaps in their capabilities for measuring and managing climate-related financial risks; lntegrating climate-related risks into financial stability monitoring; Building awareness about climate-related risks among regulated financial institutions and spreading knowledge about issues relating to climate change and methods to deal with them accordingly. (M. Rajeshwar Rao) Deputy Governor Reserve Bank of India *Source : RBI 2) India now ahead of China in financial inclusion metrics: SBI report https://www.livemint.com/industry/banking/india-now-ahead-of-china-in-financial-inclusion-metrics-sbi-report/amp-11636339797788.html 3) Surmounting the Insurmountable : M G Warrier Global Analyst, December 2012 Banking Special Financial Inclusion Surmounting the Insurmountable M G Warrier Former General Manager Reserve Bank of India For historic reasons, in India, the responsibility to purvey social justice is shared between government and banks. Perhaps these are the only two institutions which get to the grassroots. The outreach of the government is limited to tax collection and law-enforcement in several geographical areas and segments of population. Banks’ reach out to more people as part of resources mobilization efforts and as purveyor of timely and need-based credit. These are sweeping statements. Though this article will be brief and will not attempt the adventure, a deeper study will tell us that a revisit to Kautilya's Arthasastra is overdue for those in charge of governance, to understand the rights and responsibilities of an administrator of governance. Similarly, banks should introspect how much has changed in the banking business, beyond the ambience and technology, from the moneylender days. (Continued at H2) C Mountain Books "10 of the best books about mountains – for a virtual climb | Literary trips | The Guardian" https://amp.theguardian.com/travel/2020/may/26/10-of-the-best-books-about-mountains-for-a-virtual-climb Random Pick : The Snow Leopard For mystics craving revelation, Matthiessen’s quest is a gift. The Snow Leopard hails from the 1970s counter-culture era when spiritual seekers sought to dissolve the ego and achieve oneness. While many experimented with hallucinogenics, Jung and eastern philosophy, Matthiessen travelled to the Crystal mountain in the remote Dolpo region of the Nepalese Himalayas. Gentle, reflective journal entries recount his path towards enlightenment. Sights, sounds, people and nature are observed with a gentle curiosity; hopes and frustrations unfold alongside his desire to experience “the infinite in every moment”. Walkingwith Matthiessen through Nepalese villages, high mountain passes and Buddhist monasteries is a privilege. Snow falls and prayer flags flutter as he journeys on, hoping for a glimpse of the near-mythic snow leopard. D Spirituality/Faith 1) Thought* for the Day Everything in your life will never be perfect... Don't waste too much time correcting what is wrong. Get busy doing the right things. (*Received from V Rangarajan) 2) Faith charan singh (@CharanSingh60) Tweeted: Unity in Diversity - 64 अलख रूप जीअ लख्या न जाई साधिक सिध सगल सरणाई गुर के बचन सति जीअ धारहु माणस जनमु देह निस्तारहु Cannot describe the Formless (God) Seekers surrender Consider Guru's teaching as true Emancipate/redeem human incarnation Gayand, 1401, SGGS https://twitter.com/CharanSingh60/status/1457426129514422274?s=20 E Blogs & Links 1) Financial inclusion: Rural credit architecture needs an overhaul https://www.moneylife.in/article/financial-inclusion-rural-credit-architecture-needs-an-overhaul/33508.html This article is about a decade old. My concluding observation was : "The situation calls for a review of the entire rural credit architecture for an overhaul. The changes necessary may include: • Reviving the role of Rural Financial Institutions ( RFIs) including rural and semi-urban branches of commercial banks, cooperatives and Regional Rural Banks which have strayed away from their mandated responsibilities, • Identifying costs for financial intermediaries that cannot be factored into interest costs and specifying the agency which should meet them, if the activity has to remain bankable, • Without going back to the abandoned “regulated interest rates regime”, working out and specifying broad bands within which ultimate lending rates should remain when bank funds are sourced for the purpose, and • Reducing the number of bypass routes allowed for priority sector lending to the minimum. Such a review may be necessary at this stage, irrespective of who gets a license for a new commercial bank." If I were to rewrite the article today, perhaps, the same observations may have to be only rephrased! 🙏-Warrier 2) Poem by Robert Frost Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening BY ROBERT FROST Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. F Leisure Powerful piece by Swati Thiagarajan* So I am a beef-eating Hindu Brahmin, married to a South African of no religious affiliation. I am a trained Bharatanatyam dancer and I also love hip-hop, belly-dancing and jazz ballet. I studied Sanskrit and Tamil as second languages along with Hindi which I still struggle to speak with correct grammar and pronounciation, making English my first language. Tamil is my mother tongue. I love Yoga, I love chanting Sanskrit shlokas but over and above all of that, I am a woman and an Indian. My culture - and I mean mine personally - is one of lovely contradictions. No one can tell me I am not Hindu. No text can tell me how exactly to be one. No, the Ramayana is a story, not the "Word" like the Bible or the Quran. In fact, I prefer the Mahabharata any day. My mother is a pure vegetarian, my father is not. He taught me that the sunrise, a little bird song, a tall tree are all God. He taught me that the observer, me and the observed, the universe are intimately entwined. He taught me if we do not see ourselves in others, then there is no beauty to being human. So when dangerous nitwits try and circumscribe me into narrow boxes with their filtered jingoistic take on Hinduism, it makes me wonder what kind of people they are, and do they even see India the way I do? Let me say that I am not going to romanticize my view of India. I see the poverty, the helplessness, the garbage, the corruption, the violence. I wake up to stories of an old Muslim man killed by a mob on the suspicion he was eating beef. His younger son was also beaten badly. His older son is an engineer in the IAF. I wake up to news that a khap panchayat, that lovely bastion of patriarchal kangaroo court justice, ordered the rape of two sisters because their brother married outside his caste. Caste. Paint it whichever way you like, it's a sick degrading practice, as much an apartheid as the old system in South Africa, the country in which I now live. I have seen more racism in India than I have here in South Africa. I was called a "madrasi" casually by people who would be shocked if you told them they were parochial idiots. I have alternately been asked how I am not dark as all madrasis are and also been told by an acquaintance that her summer holidays made her as dark as me. On work for a shoot at the Taj Mahal, the ticket window guy argued that my camera person had to pay the foreigner rate because he was Korean. My camera person was from Manipur. I was flatly told we were lying as Indians did not look like him. It's not just North India but also South India that has all these issues. So, no, I have no romantic view of India. But I have also seen another India, travelled in it, lived in it, been told stories about it. In that India, I have been fed without having to ask, been welcomed without questions, seen unbelievable dignity in the face of all odds. I remembered a story of how the great Bismillah Khan was once on a train and when it stopped at a station, he heard a most haunting melody, a raga he could not identify. It was a young boy walking through the train playing the flute. He stopped near the ustad, and the ustad was mesmerized by the tune. And just as suddenly as the boy came, he left. The ustad was convinced he had been in the presence of divinity. He swore the young boy who played for him was none other than Lord Krishna. Ustad was on his way to the kumbh mela to perform, in a profoundly Hindu festival. When he did perform, he played the raga he heard the boy play and that raga was called Kanhaira by him. My Hinduism is simple. It is "aham brahmasmi" or "the core of my being is the ultimate reality, the root and ground of the universe, the source of all that exists." There is only one supreme being and it is the super consciousness, from which we all sprang and into which we will all be absorbed. Just as a seed carries the secret of a mighty tree within, we carry the supreme conciousness. When that is the central philosophy of Hinduism, where the microcosm and the macrocosm are linked in an infinite beautiful cycle, how can I ever accept what the extreme right wing would like to see as Hinduism? When Hinduism, a way of life, a philosophy that roots itself in a bedrock of tolerance, is twisted into narrow rules and regulations trapped by bars of hate, I cannot and will not accept it. When my Hinduism, asks me to believe in Athithi devo bavah, or "the guest is God", when it asks me to find God in myself because tatvamasi is the heart of the matter and therefore makes me find the divine in others, how can the rule makers separate us into individuals instead of humanity? My Hinduism is stories I danced to. When Bhakt Jayadeva wrote the Geeta Govindam while writing of the love between Radha and Krishna, he spontaneously composed a line, "dehi pada pallava mudharam" or "Krishna asked Radha to place her lotus-like feet on his head." Appalled by this thought that had come to his head, Jayadeva left the house to go bathe and clear his thoughts. A few minutes later, much to his wife's surprise, he came back and sat down and wrote and left again. A few minutes later he came back again. He sat down and then with great anger asked his wife how she could have written the words that were such an insult to God, his wife, most puzzled, said that he himself had just come back and written them and that's when Jayadeva knew it was Krishna himself who had done so. God was saying that in the presence of love, even God is the lesser. Yet, today, we hate, hate so much. That is not my Hinduism. In our culture we will ignore that Charvaka is an ancient Hindu philosophy that embraces philosophical skepticism and rejects the Vedas, Vedic ritualism and supernaturalism. It encourages questions and arguments. Established by Brihaspati, one of our most venerated sages. Yet we will murder professors and social workers who subscribe to it. Our Gayatri mantra, asks for the benevolent light of the sun, the life giver, to inspire our intelligence, to inspire our understanding and to banish ignorance and bathe us in enlightenment. Where is any of that now? In our culture, we will ignore that all meat was consumed by Hindus in the Vedic times and erase that part of history. Indeed that over 60% of India eats meat is rejected. I reject that Hinduism. That narrow confined box. You can call me a pseudo sickular liberal presstitute. I will just bow and say namaste, which means "I greet the divine in you". ~ Swati Thiyagarajan (*Swati Thiyagarajan is an Indian conservationist, documentary filmmaker and environmental journalist, based in Cape Town, South Africa and New Delhi, India. She is a core team member of the Sea Change Project in South Africa and environmental editor at the Indian television news network of NDTV. ) *Received from Dr T V Surendran Mananthavady G Quotes about mountains "45 of the Best Mountain Quotes (with Pics!) to Inspire You in 2021" https://www.adventureinyou.com/travel-inspiration/best-mountain-quotes/ Like : "Mountains are only a problem when they are bigger than you. You should develop yourself so much that you become bigger than the mountains you face.” ― Idowu Koyenikan (Idowu Koyenikan is an "internationally acclaimed organizational consultant and author") H 1) Continued from A1 If all these things have reached people in the proper perspective, by now there would have been no thefts, no corruption, no raping, no cheating. Is it the reality? The answer to this question is given by Bhartrihari himself : संतप्तायसि संस्थितस्य पयसो नामापि न श्रूयते मुक्ताकारतया तदेव नलिनीपत्रस्थितं राजते । मध्ये सागरशुक्तिमध्यपतितं तन्मौक्तिकं जायते प्रायेणाधम मध्यमोत्तमगुनाः संसर्गतो देहिनाम् If water falls on a hot pan, instantly it gets burnt; When water falls on a lotus leaf, the lotus becomes more beautiful with the dancing of a dew drop of water, but with a little breeze water disappears. But if the same water falls on an oyster, it takes that one drop and converts it into a pearl. For some people, listening to the teachings is like water falling on a dosa pan. As you listen it disappears. If you are filled with anger, jealousy, hatred, and distress your mind is like a dosa pan and teachings of Gita or any other valuable lesson, which is really like beautiful water drop, falls and disappears instantly. A little more evolved person is like lotus. He shines for some time. The moment he goes home from the lecture hall or deviates his mind from moral lessons, he is totally disturbed by surroundings and the lesson flies away in air. But if you are like an oyster, retain the water (morals) and absorb, the water itself gets converted into pearl. At that time moral and the person are not two different entities and they become one and the same. No doubt, this is also a moral lesson. We can choose to be a dosa pan, lotus or an oyster. Let the morals and quotes continue and we may expect a few oysters. Vivekananda rightly asked for only hundred people among 30 crores of Indians who, he thought could transform the entire nation. Vathsala Jayaraman 2) Continued from B2 Surmounting the Insurmountable... Of late, there is a clear recognition of the magnitude and dimensions of the inadequacies in credit flow to weaker sections and sectors with low individual credit needs at higher levels in GOI and RBI. Perhaps, rural credit is the most talked about and studied subject in our country since late 1950’s and from the establishment of SBI to the current efforts to develop MFIs, there have been a number of fresh initiatives to support rural development. Last July, while speaking on ‘Challenge of financial inclusion’ RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao referred to the magnitude and dimensions of the inadequacies in credit flow to weaker sections and sectors with low individual credit needs. Such recognition of the need for action, at the highest level, is comforting. Post-independence and perhaps till the emergence of the LPG (Liberalisation- Privatisation- Globalisation) dimension in policy thrust at national level, circa 1991, agricultural and rural credit and financial inclusion received undivided attention from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with support from Government of India(GOI). The period also saw extensive surveys and studies like All India Rural Credit Survey, All India Rural Credit Review, Committee to Review the Arrangements for Institutional Credit for Agriculture and Rural Development (CRAFICARD) and the study by Agricultural Credit Review Committee (Khusro Committee, 1991). Initiatives taken by RBI and GOI in improving the institutional framework in the financial sector saw the emergence of State Bank of India, setting up of institutions like National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and Unit Trust of India. Measures like reviving cooperatives, Lead Bank Scheme which significantly improved the outreach of commercial banks in rural and semi-urban areas and coordinated supports from different agencies involved in rural development, establishment of Regional Rural Banks, NABARD and SIDBI have all contributed to improved credit flow to small and medium borrowers in rural and semi-urban areas. Increasing the outreach of banks to cover the rural borrower with low credit needs has been one objective the nation has been pursuing religiously since 1950's (when State Bank of India was established), till date (now SBI has come out with facility to open account with one rupee!). But the reality of financial inclusion is eluding. Banking system has done a commendable job in this direction through the network of rural branches, rural financial institutions (RFIs) including cooperatives, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and rural branches of commercial banks. The focus shifted midway, somewhere during 1990’s to urban and metropolitan lending. Rise in rural deposits and burgeoning urban credit created imbalances and certain bypass routes were allowed for banks to achieve their priority lending targets. Banks started searching for other intermediaries like Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) for providing credit to small borrowers. MFIs, in some cases borrowed from banks at low rates and disbursed credit to the ultimate borrower at up to three times or more the borrowing rates, in the same area where bank branches functioned. So long as banks source rural deposits, they should also shoulder the responsibility of providing credit in rural areas at reasonable interest rates. GOI and RBI should at this stage take up a comprehensive review of the entire rural credit architecture for an overhaul. The changes necessary may include: • Reviving the role of Rural Financial Institutions( RFIs) including rural and semi-urban branches of commercial banks, cooperatives and Regional Rural Banks which have strayed away from their mandated responsibilities, • Identifying costs for financial intermediaries that cannot be factored into interest costs and specifying the agency which should meet them, if the activity has to remain bankable, • Without going back to the abandoned ‘regulated interest rates regime’, working out and specifying broad bands within which ultimate lending rates should remain when bank funds are sourced for the purpose and • Reducing the number of bypass routes allowed for priority sector lending to the minimum. Such a review may be necessary at this stage, irrespective of who gets licenses for new commercial banks. Sometime back, Reserve Bank had constituted a Committee (Chairman: Shri M. V. Nair) to re-examine the existing classification and suggest revised guidelines with regard to priority sector lending classification and related issues. During the Monetary Policy announcement on April 17, 2012 RBI Governor mentioned that the Committee submitted its report in February 2012 and indicated that it made the following major recommendations: (i) the existing target of the domestic scheduled commercial banks for lending to the priority sector be retained; (ii) the sector ‘agriculture and allied activities’ be a composite sector within priority sector; (iii) a sub-target for small and marginal farmers within agriculture and allied activities be segregated; (iv) a sub-target for micro enterprises under the micro and small enterprises (MSE) category be stipulated; (v) the priority sector target for foreign banks be increased to 40 per cent of adjusted net bank credit (ANBC) or credit equivalent of off-balance sheet exposure (CEOBE), whichever is higher with sub-targets of 15 per cent for exports and 15 per cent for the MSE sector; (vi) non-tradable priority sector lending certificates (PSLCs) be allowed on a pilot basis; (vii) bank loans to non-bank financial intermediaries for on-lending to specified segments be allowed to be reckoned for classification under priority sector, up to a maximum of 5 per cent of ANBC or CEOBE, whichever is higher; and (viii) the present system of report-based reporting may be improved through data-based reporting. Taking into account these recommendations and other relevant factors, GOI and RBI should also take a re-look at the definition of the priority sector, as these have not been comprehensively revised after the introduction of the concept of targeted lending to priority sector by commercial banks in the 1970’s, except for minor modifications, by way of adding some new activities under priority sector or raising the financial ceilings taking into account the inflation impact on costs. The banking infrastructure has also undergone changes with the entry of new private sector banks, consolidation of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), changes in the role and business models of cooperatives and the change in focus of public sector banks with an increased bias to profitability. All these and the developments during the last two decades have not reduced the need for differential treatment to the conventional priority sector especially agriculture and small borrowers in small industries and service sub-sectors. As public sector banks including State Bank of India and its associates, old private sector banks, new private sector banks, RRBs and cooperative banks have different approaches to resource mobilization, lending and profitability, varying capabilities in terms of outreach and expertise and different mandates from the stake-holders, each category of these institutions will have to be given resource mobilization and credit delivery tasks factoring in these structural and policy aspects. The reorganization of the banking system may be further delayed for political reasons. As essential reforms cannot wait for a change in the political weather, in the medium term, GOI and RBI may consider the following steps: • Redefine sub-sectors in the priority sector reckoning the changes that have taken place during the last two decades and realign the targets for sub-sectors. Beyond inclusion of a few additional activities as eligible for classification under priority sector or raising certain ceilings to factor in inflation impact, nothing much has happened in the recent past from this perspective. • Ask banks to ensure that their rural, semi-urban, urban and metro branches realign their credit portfolios to meet local credit needs • Instead of prescribing straight-jacket targets for lending to sub-sectors like agriculture, make necessary policy changes which will reflect the availability of expertise and outreach of each category of banks. E.g. If a bank has more branches in urban areas and cities and are able to lend more to microfinance, allow a set-off their disbursal to microfinance over and above a bench-mark against their target for lending to agriculture. • Route all concessions and subsidies in interest rates through the banking channel and make the lending banker responsible to ensure that the ultimate borrower is charged a minimum interest of, say the rates paid on savings bank deposits by the bank. Perhaps, rural credit is the most talked about and studied subject in our country since late 1950’s and from the establishment of SBI to the current efforts to develop MFIs there has been continuous initiatives to support rural development. Measures like reviving cooperatives, Lead Bank Scheme which significantly improved the outreach of commercial banks in rural and semi-urban areas and coordinated supports from different agencies involved in rural development, establishment of Regional Rural Banks, NABARD, SIDBI and recent support to encourage MFIs to function more efficiently through increased intermediation have all contributed to improved credit flow to small and medium borrowers in rural and semi-urban areas. Although UID project, Financial Inclusion Plans and business correspondent (BC) model will all help to improve linkages at the ground level, the best option in the present scenario, for the institutions referred to above, viz. Cooperatives, RRBs, rural and semi-urban branches of commercial banks, NABARD and SIDBI would be to revisit and focus on their original mandates. Such a ‘diversion’ in approach would go a long way in achieving the desired results, namely to improve financial inclusion. RBI’s discussion paper on new banks has generated some discussion on financial inclusion which is one of the stated purposes of having more banks in the private sector. Perhaps increasing the outreach of banks to cover the rural borrower with low credit needs has been one objective the nation has been pursuing religiously since 1950's (when State Bank of India was established), till date (now SBI has come out with facility to open account with one rupee!). But the reality of financial inclusion is eluding. Banking system has done a commendable job in this direction through the network of rural branches, rural financial institutions (RFIs) including cooperatives, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and rural branches of commercial banks. The focus of commercial banks shifted midway, somewhere during 1990’s to urban and metropolitan lending. Rise in rural deposits and urban credit created imbalances and certain bypass routes were allowed for banks to achieve their priority lending targets. Like Mutual Funds(MFs) investing in schemes of other MFs to pair risks, banks started searching for other intermediaries like Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) for providing credit to small borrowers. MFIs, in some cases borrow from banks at low rates and lend at up to three times the borrowing rates, in the same area where bank branches function. So long as banks source rural deposits, they should also shoulder the responsibility of providing credit in rural areas at reasonable interest rates. In April 2011, RBI Deputy Governor Usha Thorat in a speech in Kuala Lumpur on “Financial inclusion beyond microfinance” traced the recent developments in MFI sector in India and flagged the challenges in microfinance, concluding with an observation that the public policy intervention in financial inclusion calling for fiscal support-directly or indirectly-will have to be carefully crafted looking at the international experience of such schemes and their effectiveness. In the globalised economy today, learning from international experience and following ‘successful models’ will cut short the time-lag from lab to field. But, it is also essential to evolve our schemes and institutional infrastructure to suit India’s local needs with reference to our own past experience and success stories. Reason being, our resources including land, infrastructure and literacy rate vary widely from those obtaining in other countries where poverty, deprivation and unemployment have been successfully alleviated. We have states like Haryana, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh which have gone ahead in certain development parameters and are still finding difficult to manage economic development successfully. We have also states like Bihar and UP where people accept starvation wages and curse their fate for poverty and low level of literacy. In the financial sector, we have several banks and NBFCs doing very well and still not able to penetrate to rural areas or extend credit to sectors in which individual credit need is small. There are commercial bank branches, Regional Rural Banks and cooperative which are able to meet the entire credit needs of small borrowers in their respective areas of operation. During the last two decades or so, policy interventions to achieve financial inclusion, especially where fiscal support has been essential, have been sporadic and piece meal. Subsidy has been considered a bad word and the compulsions of coalition politics have been forcing central government to close their eyes when subsidy is provided by various state governments through backdoor at the wrong end in the shape of interest subsidy and write offs. A more realistic approach to the financial needs of the small borrowers with an appropriate mix of incentives and disincentives for the conduits of credit delivery will help salvage the institutional framework responsible for financial inclusion. Role of cooperatives Cooperatives have played a significant role not only in providing agricultural and rural credit, but in ensuring other linkages like inputs for farming and marketing avenues for products. As they were mainly operating in rural and semi-urban areas, it took longer time for this sector to access modern skills and technology. NABARD was established in 1982 with the specific mandate of supporting cooperatives and rural sector in general. Initial enthusiasm of NABARD faded away in the absence of legislative and administrative support from central and state governments and the institution had to satisfy itself by continuing to be an appendage of RBI doing some ‘safe’ business through established and credit-worthy cooperative banks and commercial banks. Legislative support in adequate measure for revitalizing the cooperatives which comprises state and district central cooperative banks and more importantly about a lakh primary agricultural credit societies is not forthcoming from central and state governments. At a time when the government and the regulatory and supervisory institutions are struggling to make a breakthrough in financial inclusion and improvement in productivity, if appropriately utilized, the already available infrastructure and membership of cooperatives will make their work much simpler. Out of one lakh PACSs only one-fifth situated in the four southern states and West Bengal are doing well. The remaining societies will need financial and managerial support for rehabilitation. Still, if a political will can be evolved, reviving the cooperatives with technological, financial and administrative support will give a boost to the efforts for financial inclusion. Epilogue The speed with which changes are brought about in the approach to governance and financial sector reforms will define the timeframe within which India will be able to come out of the present impasse. Coming out, India will. Present eruptive symptoms show that ‘we, the people’ will not show the patience with which they waited for generations to gain independence for realizing basic human rights. Financial inclusion will expedite empowerment towards achieving this goal. The segment of the generation which benefited maximum from LPG (those who were in the age group of 15-35, circa 1991) should take the responsibility to take India out of the mess in which the lazy generation to which I belong has landed the country. It will be in their self-interest.