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The Chief Guest for the workshop was Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. OECD Deputy Secretary General Richard Boucher, Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla and RBI Governor D Subbarao were other dignitaries present.
Addressing the need for financial literacy in today’s world, Mukherjee said that financial literacy is very important as it plays a vital role in financial inclusion in the society. Commenting on the fact that lack of financial knowledge can be dangerous Mukherji said “The recent global financial crisis has raised the question whether lack of financial knowledge led individuals to take out adjustable rate mortgages or incur credit card debts they could not afford.”
He added that apart from efforts by the financial sector, the process of spreading financial literacy required a change in the mindset of policy-makers to figure out ways to reach out to hitherto unreached segments. When questioned about the estimates for the country’s GDP growth rate, he said the government was sticking to an estimated 7.2 per cent growth rate for this fiscal and 8.5 per cent for the next (2010-11).
Highlighting the importance of financial literacy, Subbarao added, “There is no country in the world whose economy has developed and matured without a corresponding deepening of the financial sector. And such deepening is possible only when individuals and households are financially literate and are able to make informed choices about how they save, borrow and invest.” He urged that to achieve a higher rate of GDP growth for the economy our savings rate has to go up and that will be possible only by enhancing financial literacy.