Swabhimaan – Inclusive Growth & Beyond

Our first Summit in 2003 had the underlying theme of “Imperatives for Inclusive Growth” – a lot earlier than even the usage of terms “Inclusive Growth” or “Financial Inclusion” by the regular economists, policy makers or even academic communities. Ever since, we have already organized subject related 25 National Level Summits, published seven books and brought out a specialized journal entitled “Inclusion”. Much of the policy changes brought about in the recent past have emanated from our study entitled “Speeding Financial Inclusion,” an unprecedented study that remains the only such academic work in the area of financial inclusion.

We organized the 26th Skoch Summit with the underlying theme of “Swabhimaan: Inclusive Growth & Beyond” on 2nd and 3rd June 2011 at Hotel Regency, Sahar Airport Road, Mumbai.  The objective of the Summit was to bring the focus of financial inclusion back to poverty alleviation and inclusive growth rather than a mere no-frill account opening exercise, most of which still remain unused.

The Summit saw the release of Part II of the ongoing study “Revisiting Financial Inclusion”. The Skoch Development Foundation planned specialized conclaves on financial inclusion for minorities, gender response to budgeting and poverty alleviation on the sidelines of the Summit.

The key content for the summit included:

• Conditional Fund Transfers
• Financial Literacy
• Market Response to Insurance and Pensions for the Poor
• Channelizing Savings into Investments
• Importance of Converged Infrastructure for Cutting Costs
• Role of ICT in City Governance & Public Safety
• Gender Issues in Poverty, Financial Services and Budgeting
• Putting No-Frills Accounts to Work
• Reaching Banking and other Financial Services for Minorities
• Mobile and Payments Applications for Financial Sector
• Emerging Dimensions in Information Security
• Role of Co-operatives across Financial Inclusion
• Giving Thrust to Housing for Urban & Rural Poor
• Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs)