Bank accounts essential for integrating nation's poor into financial system: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that bank accounts are essential for integrating the poor of the nation into the financial system, and added that the government's programmes are aimed at benefiting the poor.

"Bank accounts are essential for integrating the poor into the financial system... The doors of the banks were not open for the poor. We decided this must end. We wanted to strengthen financial inclusion," Prime Minister Modi said in his second Independence Day address from the ramparts of the 17th-century built Red Fort.

"Nobody wants to remain poor. Those who are poor, want to move away from poverty. That is why all our programmes must be for the poor," he added.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unfurled the national flag at the Red Fort here on the occasion of the nation's 69th Independence Day today.

Dressed smartly in a creamish gold attire and a safa (turban) of a smilar hue tinged with orange and green, he unfurled national flag from the dais the 17th-century built Red Fort, and saluted the nation's martyrs, freedom fighters and armed forces for their many sacrifices amidst the playing of the national anthem.

Before the unfurling of the national flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Modi first went to Rajghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation. Thereafter, he was received at the Red Fort complex by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh, Defence Secretary G. Mohan Kumar and the commanding officer of the Delhi area.