Ministry of Finance, Government of India is organizing here a three day International Cross Regional Conference on “Increasing Financial Outreach of the Youth Population, 2014-Postal Savings Bank Forum and 90th Anniversary of World Thrift (Savings) Day during 28th – 30th October 2014 in collaboration with World Savings Retail Banking Institute (WSBI, Brussels). The Conference will be inaugurated by Shri R.P. Watal, Expenditure Secretary, Government of India here tomorrow. National Savings Institute, an attached office of Budget Division (with Headquarter at Nagpur and 10 Regional Centers across the Country) is co-hosting the event with WSBI.

The importance of public savings was realized by the international community and as per the decision taken in the year 1924, during the International Savings Congress held in Milan, Italy, the International Savings Banks Institute, now known as World Savings & Retail Banks Institute came into existence.  WSBI is an apex body of savings and retail banks from all over the world with 109 Members from 78 countries.  The Institute works for promotion of savings and organizes various conferences, workshops, seminars through sharing of experiences and information on products and services available in the Member countries for replication by making amendments / modifications suited to the local conditions.

The Cross Regional Conference will focus on defining youth, their finance and savings needs at different life stages and the role of financial education in motivating youth to save.  The Conference will also focus on how savings bank could improve their offer through the diversification of the delivery challenges.  This will be an opportunity to get an exposure to the programmes and practices prevalent in the savings banks of other Member countries of WSBI.

India has got highest rate of young population i.e. 65 % of the population is below the age of 35 years.  At present there are no products and services which can cater to the specific need of youth population. There will be an exchange of information about the products and services being offered by different savings and retail banks from all over the world.  The input received during this Conference can be utilized to design products and services most suited to different needs of this particular segment of the society.  Through marketing of these products we can also promote the virtues of thrift and savings among the youth population and thereby help in containing inflation to some extent and increasing domestic savings rate.

Organizing of these events will be helpful in drawing strategies and programmes for increasing the outreach of savings schemes to the youth in the country, and underlining the rising force of postal banking in the retail banking marketing with the sharing of the experiences by the delegates of WSBI member countries participating in the programmes.  Officers from Budget Division, National Savings Institute and Department of Posts will be participating in the event.    

The Gross and Net deposits in National Savings Schemes, which were ₹ 108.35 crores and ₹ 71.51 crore in the year 1948-49, have reached to Gross ₹ 256061.84 and  Net ₹ 135528.41 crore in 2007-08.  From the year 2008-09 after showing declining trend on account of heavy maturity, the collections have again picked-up. In the year 2013-14, the Gross Collections were ₹ 207533.69 crore and Net ₹ 15476.85 crore.

NEW INITIATIVES TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT TO PROMOTE SAVINGS

To arrest the declining trend in savings rate and to create a congenial atmosphere for development of savings habit among the people, the Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley, in his Budget speech announced revitalization of small savings and new initiatives have been taken by the Government :

• Deposit limit under Public Provident Fund Scheme has been enhanced from ₹ 1 lakh to ₹ 1.5 lakhs.
• Kisan Vikas Patra – a popular savings scheme, which was discontinued w.e.f. 1.12.2011 has been re-launched and a notification in this regard is being issued.  Under the said scheme, the investment will double in 100 months.
• To address the concerns of education and marriage expenses of girl child, a new savings scheme has been designed and the same is likely to be launched shortly.
• To provide social security through savings, a new savings certificate scheme with insurance component is also being designed and will be launched shortly.
• To enhance the outreach of the schemes to the people, the new schemes being launched will also be made available to the investors, through the authorized branches of nationalized an commercial banks.
• A massive programme for bringing operation of the savings schemes in Post Offices on CBS platform has been launched by the Department of Posts and the schemes have already been put on CBS platform in more than 600 Post Offices.

From the inputs which will be received during the aforesaid three day Cross Regional Conference, a savings product for youth population will be worked out to involve 65 % of our population comprising youth in Savings Movement and develop the habit of regular savings.

Youth savings outreach: government initiatives to expand tailored savings products and postal banking access for young people. The government aims to increase financial outreach to youth by defining their savings needs, promoting financial education, and designing a dedicated youth savings product. Initiatives include enhancing deposit limits, relaunching popular savings certificates, creating schemes for girl child expenses and savings with insurance components, extending scheme access through authorized bank branches, and migrating postal savings to a core banking platform. Conference inputs and international practice sharing will inform product design, diversification of delivery channels, and marketing to promote thrift and raise youth participation in savings.