Skip to content
ForumIAS Blog
  • Study Resources
    • Yojana and Kurukshetra Summaries
    • Government Schemes and Program
    • Government | Bills | Acts | Laws | Regulations
    • Economy
    • Environment
    • Guide : Indian Polity for UPSC Civil Services Examination
    • Qrious Project
    • Prelims 2020- Learn with ForumIAS
  • Current Affairs
    • Current Affairs- Main
    • Subject-Wise News
      • History News
      • Polity News
      • Economy News
      • Environment News
      • IR News
      • Society News
      • Disaster News
      • Social issues News
      • Geography News
      • Security News
      • S&T News
      • Agriculture News
    • Factly for Prelims
    • Weekly Current Affairs
      • Weekly Current Affairs Highlights
      • Weekly Current Affairs Compilations
    • Monthly Current Affairs
  • Prelims 2022
    • Prelims 2022 Study Material- Learn with ForumIAS
    • Prelims Capsules 2021
    • Prelims 2021 Material
    • Prelims Guidance
      • UPSC Booklist
      • Story of Minal Karanwal
      • How To Clear Civil Services
      • Abhishesk Surana Rank 10
    • Prelims Previous Year’s Questions
      • UPSC prelims question paper
      • Subject-wise PYQs
    • Prelims Question Bank
    • Static Material for Prelims
      • Polity Guide
      • Environment Guide
      • Economy Guide
    • Factly Current Affairs
      • All Factly Articles
      • Factly-Indian Economy
      • Factly-Environment
      • Factly-IR
      • Factly-Science and Technology
      • Factly-Bills and Acts
      • Factly-Schemes and Programs
    • Important CA Topics
  • Buy IAS Books
  • Free Daily Initiatives
    • 7PM Editorial
    • Must Read News Articles
    • 9 PM Current Affair Brief
    • Prelims Marathon
    • Mains Marathon
    • 10 PM Daily Quiz
    • Factly for UPSC Prelims
    • 9 PM Articles List
    • Factly Articles List
  • Question Bank
    • Mains Question Bank
      • Mains Question Bank and Answers-1
      • Mains Question Bank and Answers-2
      • Mains Question Bank and Answers-3
    • UPSC Mains PYQs
      • UPSC PYQs (GS-1 )
      • UPSC PYQs (GS-2)
      • UPSC PYQs (GS-3)
    • UPSC Prelims PYQs
      • Ancient/Medieval History
      • Art & Culture
      • Economy
      • Environment
      • Geography
      • International Relation
      • Modern History
      • Polity
      • S&T
      • Social and Schemes
    • Prelims Question Bank
    • Indian Economy Quiz/MCQs bank
  • Interview
    • Interview – Main Page
    • Interview Process
    • Myths About Interview
    • Board Members Profile
    • Interview Transcripts
    • Common Questions
      • Hobby Based Question
      • Sports Based Question
      • State Based Question
    • Important articles
  • Downloads
    • EPIC/Factly magazine
    • Weekly Current Affairs PDF For UPSC
    • Monthly Current Affairs For UPSC PDF Download
    • Compilation of Initiatives
    • Official Answer Key
    • UPSC Syllabus
      • UPSC Prelims Syllabus
      • UPSC Mains Syllabus
    • UPSC Previous Year Papers
      • Prelims Paper
      • Mains Paper
    • Economic Survey 20-21
  • Toppers Space
    • Toppers Strategy
      • Prelims Strategy
      • Mains Strategy
      • Interview Strategy
    • Topper’s Testimonials and Test Copies
    • Motivation
      • Motivation Articles
      • Articles by Newayn
  • Others
    • Announcement
    • Contact Us
    • Careers

JAM: Scheme for social and economic inclusion

Posted on August 28th, 2017 Last modified on September 12th, 2017 CommentsViews : 2.5k

Context:

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile revolution will ensure economic and social inclusion.

Introduction:

  • The Finance Minister also said that the government now makes direct transfers worth Rs. 74,000 crore to the financial accounts of 35 crore beneficiaries annually under various government schemes like PAHAL, MNREGA, old age pensions and student scholarships
  • Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also praised the government’s flagship programme Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) on the completion of its three years.

What is the present status of financial inclusion in India?

  • Presently, about 52.4 crore unique Aadhaar numbers are linked to 73.6 crore accounts in India.
  • The number of PMJDY accounts opened stood at 29.52 crore as of August 16, up from 12.55 crore in January 2015.
  • The number of rural PMJDY accounts grew from 7.54 crore to 17.64.
  • The number of RuPay cards issued increased from 11.08 crore to 22.71 crore.
  • The total balance in beneficiary accounts stood at Rs. 65,844.68 crore and the average balance per account increased from Rs. 837 in January 2015 to Rs. 2,231 as of August 16, 2017 and the proportion of zero balance accounts fell from 76.81% in September 2014 to 21.41%.
  • As of March 2014, women constituted about 28% of all savings accounts, with 33.69 crore accounts.
  • As of March 2017, according to data from top 40 banks and regional rural banks, women’s share has risen to about 40%.

What is JAM?

  • The JAM is the abbreviation form of Jan Dhan Yojana , Aadhaar and Mobile number.
  • The government has launched this scheme to deliver direct benefit  to India’ poor.
  • The scheme brought together financial inclusion, biometric identification (Aadhaar) and mobile telecommunications
  • The JAM (short for Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity was first proposed in the Economic Survey 2014-15.

What was the need of JAM?

  • Economic Survey 2015-16 pointed out that in rural areas; the level of preparedness for implementation of the JAM trinity for effective delivery of the government’s social security schemes is low.
  • According to the economic survey, about 3.75 lakh crore or 4.2% of GDP is currently spent on key subsidies.
  • Due to deficit of funds year after year, government is perpetually short of cash to fund the schemes
  • The survey also stressed the need for improving the business correspondent (BC) network to ensure that the exclusion risk is satisfactorily addressed.

What are the objectives of the scheme?

  • JAM trinity plant to directly transfer subsidies to intended beneficiaries and eliminate intermediaries and leakages.
  • The goal of the policy is to replace the use  of cash, either in government transactions or in regular commerce, by providing the necessary incentives to use digital financial transactions over a period of time through policy intervention.
  • The policy will strengthen financial inclusion as it will be ensured that each eligible account holder under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is provided access to digital financial services in addition to the RuPay Card.

What are the benefits of JAM?

Benefits to different stakeholders:

1-       For poor:

  • The scheme would bring all Indians into the mainstream and would end the social as well as economic exclusion.
  • The poor people are able to make payments electronically.
  • The poor will have access to financial services.

2– For government:

  • The government will be strengthened because it can transfer resources to citizens faster and more reliably and with less leakage.
  • The government finances will be improved because of the reduced subsidy burden.
  • It will help government to identify various beneficiaries of various schemes and directly send them cash

3-       For the economy:

  •  It will be generate huge infrastructure available at lower cost.
  • This will also bring efficiency in payments system and ensure that merchants/consumers can leverage their credit history to access instant, low-cost micro-credit through digital means and create necessary linkages between payments transaction history and credit information.

What are the Challenges?

  • Lack of infrastructure
  • Lack of financial inclusion opportunities for Indian citizens
  • The process of putting  new infrastructure in place can be extremely disruptive, as uneducated people will not understand new procedures.
  • Inadequate account opening and less banks Penetration: still many landless farmers and households with no ration cards are left behind
  • Aadhar accounts are not sufficiently opened as certain issues like privacy are affecting its credibility
  • Lack of awareness about the scheme
  • Some concerns about the effectiveness of DBT to all schemes eg farmers are criticising they it would be difficult to pay high upfront costs for fertiliser and then wait for payments through banks.

What measures   are  needed?

  • Finance ministry should provide adequate and timely disbursement of transaction processing charges for the bank and agent network
  • Increasing penetration of banks and financial institutions in rural areas.
  • Capacity building measures for the  frontline banking staff
  • Addressing privacy concerns through enactment of legislation
  • Strict monitoring of subsidy routes. Any suspicious activity should be thoroughly investigated by vigilance agencies
  • Cash withdrawal centres such as ATMs should be nearby to commonplaces
  • Banking Corresponding agents can be used to educate farmers not to fall into traps of moneylenders. This would result in people using more of their JanDhan account
  • Many of Indian villages till now don’t even have electricity. There is need for infrastructure like cellular towers, cheap mobile plans because without mobile connectivity JAM would be meaningless
  • Government should see to it that various schemes like Smart City, Skill India, Digital India, Make In India are integrated with JAM and DBT so that less leakage and more productive results are achieved faster.
Print Friendly and PDF
Published August 28, 2017By ForumIAS
Categorized as NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL & SOCIAL

Post navigation

Previous post

Issue of bank Mergers

Next post

7 PM Daily Editorials Brief – August 28, 2017

Buy IAS Books

  1. Click here to Buy IAS Books →

Prelims 2022 Study Material

  1. Prelims 2022 Study Material- Learn with ForumIAS →

Free IAS Preparation by Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to the blog followed by several Rankholders and ensure success in IAS

Testimonials and MGP Copies

  • [Download] – Vikas Mahato IAS Rank 110 (UPSC CSE 2021) – MGP Test Copies + Testimonial
  • [Download] – Pragya Jat IAS Rank 91 (UPSC CSE 2021) – MGP Test Copies + Testimonial
  • [Download] – Utkarsh Dwivedi IAS Rank 5 (UPSC CSE 2021) – MGP Test Copies + Testimonial
  • [Download] – Ayush Venkat Vats IAS Rank 74 (UPSC CSE 2021) – MGP Test Copies + Testimonial
  • [Download] – Naman Goyal IAS Rank 30 (UPSC CSE 2021) – MGP Test Copies + Testimonial

Most Popular Articles

  1. How to crack IAS in first attempt →
  2. Booklist for Prelims 2020 →
  3. IAS Rank 1 Anudeep D Testimony & Copies →
  4. Inspiring story of Minal, twice failed in Prelims, Now Rank 35 →
  5. Fighting Depression in Times of UPSC Preparation ( & Corona ) →

Strategy And Motivation :

  • Toppers Strategy to Clear CSE
  • Sachin Gupta Rank 3 CSE 2017
  • Rajarshi Shah Rank 81 CSE 2017
  • Life at LBSNAA
  • Rank 54 CSE 2018
  • Suman Sourav Mohanty Rank 9 CSE 2016
  • Sumit Rai Rank 54 CSE 2018
  • Political Science Optional Strategy
  • Avoid Exhausting Attempts in CSE

Preparation Guides

  • Indian Forest Service Preparation Guide
  • Myths about IAS
  • Guide : How to crack IAS without exhauting attempts
  • History | Art and Culture – Updates and News
  • Polity and governance – News and Updates
  • Environment – News and Updates
  • Economy – News and Updates
  • Agriculture – News and Updates
  • Social Issues – News and Updates
  • International Relations – News and Updates
  • Geography – News and Updates
  • Security – News and Updates
  • Disaster Management- News and Updates
  • Science & Tech. – News and Updates
About ForumIAS

ForumIAS is India’s leading Online website for UPSC IAS Exam Online Preparation and guidance. At ForumIAS, we have a dream. Our dream is to make its members achieve their IAS dream. Today thousands of aspirants have joined the elite services such as IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS and other central and state services with the right inputs provided by ForumIAS. Take a look at our IAS Toppers

Free IAS Online Preparation Initiatives by ForumIAS

Current affairs is the most important part of UPSC IAS exam. ForumIAS provides a detailed analysis of important news articles through its 9PM brief. In current affairs reading Editorials Online needs an in-depth focus and hence we provide a separate analysis of daily editorials which is not found in any other website. Click the following link to access these free preparation initiatives in Portal. ForumIAS also provides compilations and Free downloads for UPSC IAS preparation Knowing is never enough for IAS exam. An IAS aspirant must be engaged in answer writing practice to do well in UPSC IAS Mains Exam. ForumIAS has launched a Mains Marathon initiative for IAS mains Online answer writing. Click here to access UPSC Mains Marathon initiative. For Daily Must Read Newspaper articles, Visit Must Read Newspaper page here. Must Read Newspaper is an Initiative by Team ForumIAS to provide Current Affairs links to the Must Read Articles of The Day from Newspaper.

UPSC Syllabus

The most important part of UPSC IAS exam is its syllabus and there is a need to take an in-depth look at it. Click here to view the UPSC IAS Prelims syllabus. Visit UPSC IAS syllabus page here

UPSC IAS Study Material

ForumIAS is the repository of many toppers’ Online study materials for GS Mains and Optional subjects. The most unique thing about it is that they are handwritten by toppers themselves. Click here for UPSC sample notes

Interview Preparation for IAS

Interview is the last and crucial stage for becoming an IAS officer. How to prepare for it? We provide a solution. ForumIAS is the only online website where quality IAS interview preparations happen. Online Current affairs from an interview perspective are extensively discussed and specific preparation based on candidate’s profile and hobbies can be done. Please visit this link for UPSC Interview Preparation At ForumIAS we have an exclusive Online page to read the UPSC Interview Transcripts

Indian Forest Service (IFoS)

IFoS is one of the most sought after All India Service. ForumIAS provides the right approach to excel in this exam through their toppers who have shared their success mantras and their study materials in an elaborate manner.

About Indian Administrative Service (IAS)

IAS is considered as one of the best jobs on earth. IAS officers hold the most important positions in Central and State Governments and in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). They also represent India in international organizations. They take the most important decisions in the administration of Government policies and development programs.

About Indian Police Service (IPS)

IPS officers occupy higher positions in the State Police Departments, Central Armed Police Forces and Intelligence Agencies. Their most important responsibilities are maintenance of Law and Order and internal security.

About Indian Foreign Service (IFS)

IFS officers serve as diplomats in international missions and embassies of India around the world and in prominent international organizations like United Nations (UN), World Bank, and IMF. They work to promote India’s interests from a bilateral and a global perspective. The Study portal is a single point of online IAS preparation through its several initiatives like the Must Read News Articles, the 9 PM Brief, the Mains Marathon. If you are preparing for IAS exam online, ForumIAS is the place to go. ForumIAS is proud of ForumIAS Alumni in UPSC Service who have secured top Ranks in past 5 years.

Guides by ForumIAS

Polity | Environment | Economy | IFoS Preparation Guide | Crack IAS in first Attempt | Interview Preparation Guide

Buy IAS Books

About

  • About Us
  • Work With Us
  • Our Mission
  • Credits
  • Team
  • Privacy Policy

Reach Us

  • Queries: blog@forumias.academy
  • Support: helpdesk@forumias.academy
  • Enquiry: admissions@forumias.academy

Our Initiatives

  • Must Read News Articles
  • Prelims Marathon
  • Mains Marathon
  • Toppers Interview
  • Preparation Strategy
  • 9 PM BRIEF

Site Links

  • Discussion Forum
  • ForumIAS Academy
  • Blog
  • Portal ( Deprecated )
  • FAQ

Visit Us At

Forum Learning Centers

#Delhi - 19, Pusa Road, 2nd Floor, IAPL House, Opposite Metro Pillar 95-96, Karol Bagh, New Delhi-110005, View Google Map Location

#Patna - 2nd floor, AG Palace, E Boring Canal Rd, Patna, Bihar 800001, View Google Map Location

#Hyderabad - 1st Floor, SM Plaza, RTC X Rd, Indira Park Road, Jawahar Nagar, Hyderabad, Telangana 500020, View Google Map Location

CIN No.: U80904DL2018PTC338126 | GST No.: 07AADCF4830D1Z0

© ForumIAS Blog. Designed & Developed by Stellar Digital Pvt. Ltd.Privacy & Terms of Use