Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna director V Mukunda Das, state development commissioner KC Saha and Arvind Choudhary at the international conference on financial inclusion & economic growth theory and evidence in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, July 28: Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna (CIMP) today organised an international conference on financial inclusion and economic growth theory and evidence in collaboration with Institute of Global Finance and Development, Lancashire Business School, University of Central Lancashire, UK.

Inaugurating the conference, K.C. Saha, the state development commissioner, said: “There is a lot of foul play by middlemen involved in the financial sector. The financial inclusion has immense importance and sustained efforts need to be taken in this area.” Highlighting the role of micro finance units, the development commissioner said the micro financing unit plays a great role in alleviation of poverty but they should broaden their area of operations because the urban poor generally benefit from micro-financing the most.

Saha, however, cautioned the behaviour and attitude of the field staff.

He said: “Commercialisation has affected the micro finance sector and there is a profit motive in the minds of the field staff, which has led to unethical practices. There should be transparency and openness in the system.”

V. Mukunda Das, the CIMP director, said Bihar is emerging as a model for development and the government is taking initiatives to take the state to the forefront.

The director added CIMP was emerging as a thought leader and contributing to the development of Bihar.

The six CIMP projects offered by Nabard are of high relevance and can be used by policy makers from the state in formulating policy decision. Das said: “Bihar is showing the way to other states and in coming years, the Bihar development model will be accepted and appreciated by other states too just as we have heard about the Kerala or Punjab development models.” In recent years, exploitation of poor people has come down in the state owing to various developmental models.

“However, despite various developmental goals by the state government, there is still a large chunk of population which does not have access to banking and payment services,” said Shireesh of CIMP.

The CIMP professor said a huge part of the population in India still does not have bank accounts; the financially excluded people are mostly women, marginal farmers, landless labourers, urban slum dwellers, daily wage earners and migrants among others.