Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana

                   

 In his maiden Independence address from Red Fort, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had announced the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana which is scheduled to be launched on Thursday (August 28). Many government owned banking entities have also geared up to ensure that the targets set by the government are achieved within the stipulated time. With the slogan "Mera Khata - Bhagya Vidhaata" the scheme is a financial inclusion scheme covering all households in the country with banking facilities, ensuring a bank account for each household. What is PM Jan Dhan Yojana? • The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is an ambitious scheme that will provide a host of benefits including a bank account, insurance and a debit card for all. • It is a mega financial inclusion plan under which bank accounts and RuPay debit cards with inbuilt insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh will be provided to crores of persons with no access to formal banking facilities. • The ambitious scheme aims to bring poor people into the ambit of the Government's financial programme. It will cover both urban and rural areas and those who open account would get Domestic Debit Card (Ru-pay card). • The long term vision of the Jan Dhan Yojana is to lay the foundation of a cashless economy and is complementary to Narendra Modi's Digital India Scheme. Aim of the Jan Dhan Yojana: • The scheme intends to accomplish the objective of housing for all by providing basic banking accounts with a debit card with inbuilt accident insurance. • The government aims to open as many as 1 crore bank accounts on the first day itself. • The main features of the PMJDY scheme include Rs 5,000 overdraft facility for Aadhar-linked accounts. • RuPay Debit Card with inbuilt Rs 1 lakh accident insurance cover. • One of the salient features of this scheme is that after remaining active for 6 months the account holder will become eligible for an overdraft of up to Rs 2,500. • This will further be enhanced by the bank to Rs 5000 over time. • The PMJDY has set an ambitious target of bringing in more than 7.5 crore un-banked families into India's banking system by opening more than 15 Crore bank accounts (two bank accounts per household). When will it be launched • Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious financial inclusion plan is all set to kick off on Thursday. • The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana will be launched nationally in the capital by the Prime Minister himself. • The major cities where the functions will be held on August 28 for the launch of the scheme include Dehradun, Port Blair, Guwahati, Patna, Muzaffarpur, Vizag, Panjim, Mumbai, Gandhinagar, Surat, Bharuch, Bilaspur and Raipur. • As many as 76 functions will be held across the country. • Besides this, over 60,000 enrolment camps in rural areas will also be set up with a view to make people aware of the importance of bank accounts. Two phases of the scheme • The first phase of the mission, starting this month, would end in August next year. • Phase-1 of PMJDY begins on the August 28, 2014 and will last until August 14, 2015. • The first phase will be focused on opening a bank account and providing credit facilities to those who are outside the banking system in urban and rural India. • The second phase will start from 2015 till 2018. • It will cover aspects such as micro insurance and pension schemes like 'Swavalamban'. Why this Yojana? "We want to integrate the poorest of the poor with bank accounts with Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. Today, there are crores of families which have mobile phones but no bank accounts. We have to change this. The economic development must benefit poor and it should start from here." Under the Jan Dhan Yojana, he said, "The person who opens a bank account will get a debit card and the family will get Rs 1 lakh insurance cover. This will help the family to deal with any unforeseen eventuality."