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A thought on Financial Literacy

Financial Literacy~ The local  papers carry a story of a farmer being duped of Rs 1.47 crore by conmen promising to double his investments.through insurance policies, well the guy stays in Sector 2 Chandigarh, so he would be more of a landlord. One would not expect a man of this position to be so unaware but then that is being  financially illiterate. There are many such.misinformed individuals looking for assured high returns with safety and trusting slick paperwork and apparently wealthy owners.
Another newsclip is of investors demanding their money back in the Pearls Group ~ said to be an only Rs 45000 crore scam. Again what could be the.so called assured.returns, I don't know but seems to have been doubling in five years or less. The con in chief and his lieutenants had deep links obviously to the political and administrative echelons and benchmarked their so called returns.above the Bank FDs.and Small Savings Rates.
Now would it not be better to invest in Mutual Funds (I don't say ULIPS, that was.close to a scam too not too long ago). Another option could be pension funds.
What makes a person trust and park his hard.earned money, earned bit by bit, with scam artists fronting through so called corporate groups but fear mutual funds and consider their base, the stock markets, too risky and a gamble.
This is the moot point, how do we open up this untapped huge market and bring the savings into the formal markets. The human angle, primarily relationship building and trust needs to be regenerated. The SEBI it seems.lowered commissions for intermediaries in MFs, the rural and semi urban areas.are thus out of the universe of such investment avenues. This is loud thinking but even as.a DDM posted in the districts in Punjab years ago I tried to advise the comparatively better off segment to invest any surplus in MFs or such products but avoid scams such as Golden Forests or Marigold (frauds of those times) or whatever such names and schemes they come up with. I know of a lady in my neighborhood who came to me for advise on whether to invest in a land backed plantation scheme deep south, I found her.mind actually made up to invest (land backed !) but wanted.only reassurance) ~well she lost her investment later. I tried wherever I got the chance to stress to people I met to atleast glance at the financial pages of newspapers  but it's a long haul.
This is the crux, financial literacy has to be all across segments and classes with the inputs varying as per the profile. And the Regulators have to realize this.
Lastly, we are all pushing technology in financial systems and outreach, it's a no brainer I agree but there is deep apprehension in the rural communities and even unaware urban segments about its safety and usage. Particularly with scamsters targeting them on mobiles.and accessing their passwords and.money.
We need to reach out and use technology absolutely and I am all for it but this aspect is crucial to winning trust and acceptance.
Just sharing as it's really hurtful to read.about such scams.
An afterthought~ Even if greed is the underlying emotion exploited by con men, the exploitation occurs due to being unaware about the products and their actual risks.
PS My servant at Ropar. I forced him to open an account and taught him to use an ATM Card. He got locjed into the ATM Booth. He panicked. I was called. Then I first cooled him down. After that told him to press hard on the door switch. Technology can be that basic.

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