24,89,185 bank accounts opened under Jan Dhan Yojana in Haryana

PMJDY is an ambitious programme on financial inclusion to cover all unbanked households in the country.

Mega camps in this regard are being organised and as many as 15,567 camps have been organised in rural areas and 10,812 in urban areas till end of November, he added.

He said that as per the survey, a total number of 43,99,191 households have to be covered and work is being carried out at large scale to cover remaining households under the scheme.

It is expected to cover the remaining household under the scheme by December 10, the Minister said.

Abhimanyu said out of total covered households, 10,79,204 accounts have been opened with Aadhaar Card and 14,09,981 without Aadhaar Cards in rural as urban areas.

All accounts have been opened by public sector banks, private banks and nationalised banks, he added.

The Minister urged the people to come forward to take advantage of the scheme and open bank accounts of their families.

Source: News and World News

Processes for inking FTA underway: Philippines assures India

The assurance was given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Philippines President Benigno Aquino during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the India-ASEAN and East Asia summits here.

India has formally signed the long-pending pact with the other nine southeast Asian nations -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Modi in his address to the 12th India-ASEAN summit yesterday had urged that the FTA on Service and Investment be brought into force "at the earliest".

The services agreement will open up opportunities of movement of both manpower and investments. The pact will allow India to leverage its competitive edge in the areas of finance, education, health, IT, telecommunications and transport.

This will be especially helpful for balancing India's deficit with ASEAN countries in trade of goods. The India– ASEAN agreement on trade in goods was operationalised in 2010.

It seeks to liberalise trade in services and bilateral investment, building on their existing free trade agreement (FTA) for goods and covering a combined population of 1.8 billion.

The current India-ASEAN trade is around USD 81 billion and a target of USD 100 billion has been set for 2015.

The FTA will help provide a commercially meaningful market across ASEAN for India's professionals, including those from the IT/ITeS sector.

The deal was signed by India in New Delhi after Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cancelled her visit here on August 26 to initial the pact as she was preoccupied with the launch of the inclusive banking scheme, Jan Dhan Yojana.

The deal has instead been signed by circulating the text around the countries involved.

Source: Latest World News and News