Sikkim Governor suggested shifting focus on cultivation of medicinal plants
The Sikkim Governor highlighted on the importance of financial literacy and inclusion and added that the economically underprivileged section of the society needs to be served without any discrimination in order to make equity accessible for all.
Superintendent of Police Tenzing Loden Lepcha briefed the gathering on the various aspects of cyber security and cyber fraud that comes along with speeding digital developments.
Cyber-crimes like identity theft, phishing, and other hacking activities including sextortion designed to scam people out of money have been increasing on an alarming rate and the way to fight against these crimes is through prevention, outreach and awareness, he said.
He informed about Mission SAFAI (Sikkim Against Fraud Action Initiative), a Sikkim Police initiative that projects vividly the ways people are duped through short animated videos in both English and Nepali languages.
The Sikkim Governor added that six such awareness videos based on different fraud scenarios have been made till date and the Sikkim Police aims at creating more of such videos for distribution to the masses with the support and coordination of all the banks in Sikkim.
Lepcha also stressed on the importance of strictly vetting KYC documents by banks in order to avoid usage of mule accounts by criminals to launder money from vulnerable citizens.
The Sikkim Governor expressed his hopes to work in tandem with the stakeholders in ensuring proactive work towards Mission SAFAI so that innocent people do not have to lose their hard earned money to fraudsters.
RBI Gangtok general manager Kishore Pariyar briefed the house about the three messages of this year’s Financial Literacy Week, viz. (a) convenience of digital transactions, (b) security of digital transactions and (c) protection to customers.
The Governor added that the rise of digitalisation in formal financial services, increased accessibility to technology enabled gadgets by the citizens has a tremendous potential to support financial inclusion measures being undertaken by the Government of India and Reserve Bank of India through various policy measures from time to time.
He said the Digital Financial Services bring the following features:
- (a) anywhere, anytime transactions
- (b) interoperability
- (c) building of transaction histories that can be meaningfully used to improve access to credit and relevant financial services to various target groups.
Reserve Bank of India has developed content in the form of posters and audio visuals on these messages. As part of the Financial Literacy Week activities, RBI Gangtok will disseminate the information and create awareness among various bank customers and public through the through a series of Nukkad Nataks, financial literacy van, radio jingles, posters etc. that the RBI Gangtok has planned across the various districts during FL week.
Further there will be a mass media campaign during the month of February and March this year to broadcast essential financial awareness messages on the local radio stations of Sikkim.
The event was also addressed by SBI general manager Ashok K. Mahakul, wherein he deliberated on the key parameters of digital banking, its access, usage and quality.
Likewise, NABARD general manager and officer-in-charge apprised the house on the linkage of local products with e-commerce.
The inaugural programme concluded with the flagging off of a mobile van for financial literacy campaign from the Mayfair premises. A Nukkad Natak with messages on digital transactions and crimes was also performed.
On the occasion, the RBI Gangtok also handed over backpacks to the children of Child Care Institute Home of Bojoghari through the hands of the Sikkim Governor.
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