BL:VINSON KURIAN :THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUG. 18: 2013
Inclusive banking may have moved to the top of the agenda in the country, but patronising a bank doesn't always mean that people escape the attention of moneylenders and other unscrupulous elements.
To avoid them, and the dangers they bring, calls for financial literacy. 
Financial literature in the vernacular could go an extra mile in reaching out to the rural poor and the unbanked at large.Inclusive banking may have moved to the top of the agenda in the country, but patronising a bank doesn’t always mean that people escape the attention of moneylenders and other unscrupulous elements.

SHARING EXPERTISE

This is exactly what set V. Prabhakaran Nair, general manager of Kerala State Cooperative Bank and a former assistant general manager of State Bank of Travancore, thinking in this direction.
He has 40 years of a full-time career to bank on. He thought that the best possible manner of meaningful intervention would be to share with the public expertise acquired from vast exposure to the field.
The result was a handy book in Malayalam, titled, Adhunika Banking Indiayil (Modern Banking in India), which is now going into a second print run.

BANKING SERVICES

Nair recalls that even after 66 years of Independence, as much as 60 per cent of the country’s population is still not able to enjoy the benefits from mainstream banking.
The excluded people do not know how a bank functions; different types of deposit accounts and how they can be opened; how to apply for credit and eligibility thereof, among others.
People also have the right to be informed of various banking services available and ways of registering complaints in case of their denial.
Those in the rural outback are mostly unaware of these, which calls for intensifying financial literacy drive in these areas.

LUCID STYLE

The book that Nair has authored, which runs to no more than 138 pages, should help authorities with the task in the State of Kerala.
Apart from dealing with primary banking functions, it deals with the latest developments ranging from internet/mobile banking; credit/debit/AT cards; right to information; to credit rating agencies.
It has got separate sections also on such issues of contemporary interest as bad loans, educational loans, and functioning of debt recovery tribunals as also an introduction to financial and security markets.
Banking ombudsman, cooperative banking, Islamic banking and regional rural banks are other useful topics dealt with in a lucid style and simple language.