Jammu, Feb 13: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday started conducting Financial Literacy Week (FLW) programme in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh to propagate financial education messages. This year’s theme is ‘Good Financial Behaviour – Your Saviour’.
The RBI has been conducting FLWs every year since 2016. This year’s theme, as per the bank, is extremely relevant in the current times for inculcating financial discipline while also giving impetus to the digitisation drive of the Government of India and Reserve Bank of India.
The inaugural function for the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh was held on Monday in Jammu in the presence of Kamal P Patnaik, Regional Director, RBI (UTs of J&K and Ladakh), Ajay Kumar Sood, Chief General Manager, NABARD; Ramesh Chand, Reserve Bank Integrated Ombudsman; Sandeep Mittal, General Manager, RBI and other Senior officials from RBI and commercial banks.
Speaking at the inaugural function, Patnaik exuded confidence that the initiative will go a long way in spreading awareness among the public for active saving, planning and budgeting and will also make people aware of various digital initiatives of commercial banks and will help them fight the apprehensions they have for using digital modes.
Sandeep Mittal, General Manager, urged all bankers to be associated with the Reserve Bank of India’s “mission of nation building” through the creation of a financially aware and digitally empowered India.
It is RBI’s endeavour to reach out to both prospective and existing customers and all stakeholders are requested to coordinate and make this financial literacy campaign a success, he said.
He said that with the success of UPI, the implementation of the account aggregator (AA) framework and the mass adoption of digital banking services, India is witnessing an emergence of new business models.
The two sub-themes of this year’s Financial Literacy Week are Active Saving, Planning and Budgeting and Prudent use of digital financial services.
“While saving, one must keep in mind three important things – Safety, Liquidity and Return. Planning and Budgeting is the art of balancing income and expenses to ensure that expenses are always less than income. The surplus generated, if any, can be invested for future needs. Prudent use of digital financial services is extremely important during recent times when we are witnessing an increase in financial frauds (mostly online) due to rapid shifting towards digital payments,” the RBI said.
The RBI said it shall be undertaking a centralized mass media campaign during the months of February and March this year to broadcast essential financial awareness messages on this theme.
