* The government rolled out its ambitious financial inclusion programme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) on 28 August 2014, and said about 1.5 crore accounts were opened on August 28 through thousands of camps, exceeding the firstday target of 1 crore accounts.
* The programme is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first blockbuster social upliftment scheme and is aimed at improving the lives of millions of India's poor by bringing them into the financial mainstream and freeing them from the clutches of usurious moneylenders, while giving them a modicum of insurance cover.
* Buoyed by the performance on Day 1, Modi shortened the time for achieving the 7.5 crore new accounts to five months from six, urging the finance ministry to complete the task by January 26.
* The prime minister topped up each account with life insurance cover of Rs 30,000, adding to the Rs 1 lakh accidental insurance benefit already available under the account that will come bundled with a Ru-Pay-enabled debit card.
* After six months of satisfactory operations, the account would be eligible for Rs 5,000 overdraft facility, designed to take the poor out of the clutches of moneylenders. Subsequently, these accounts will be also used for providing micro pensions.
* PMJDY was simultaneously launched at multiple centres by 20 chief ministers and several union ministers — Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Bhopal, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani in Surat, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Chennai and Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar in Pune.
* In all, 600 programmes and 77,852 camps were organised on the first day for the opening of bank accounts.
* All the 6 lakh villages to be mapped according to the sub service area. Villages with over 2,000 population to get full-fledged brick & mortar branches. Each bank to have at least one fixed point banking outlet catering to 1,000 to 1,500 households.
* Expansion of network includes: 50,000 Business Correspondents - targets set for bank, 7,000 branches and 20,000 new ATMs in the first phase.
* Other features include: Project management consultant/group to be engaged to help financial services department. A web portal would be created for reporting/monitoring of progress. Roles of various stakeholders like departments, state governments, RBI, NABARD, NPCI and others identified. Gram Dak Sevaks in rural areas are proposed as Business Correspondents of banks.
* Direct benefits transfers for LPG could be routed through these accounts.
* With the introduction of new technology introduced by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a person can transfer funds, check balance through a normal phone which was earlier limited only to smart phones so far.
* Mobile banking for the poor would be available through National Unified USSD Platform (NUUP) for which all banks and mobile companies have come together.
Other highlights of the scheme
1) Modi had announced the scheme on Independence Day in his address to the nation.
2) The logo of the mission was created by Priya Sharma through competition in My Gov.in platform.
3) The name “Jan Dhan” was also chosen through an online competition on the MyGov Platform and received more than 6000 suggestion from Indian citizens. After evaluation the jury shortlisted “Jan Dhan” which was suggested by 7 individuals.
4) Slogan of this scheme is " Mera Khata – Bhagya Vidhaata” (My Bank Account – The Creator of the Good Fortune).
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