No-flub account

The government has been trying to focus on no-frills accounts to promote financial inclusion. At a press conference after a meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram and north zone bank chiefs last week, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit urged the finance ministry to remove obstacles in opening such accounts that provide basic banking services for the poor. Dikshit, clearly, isn’t particularly familiar with basic bank accounts — she apparently didn’t even know what they were called. In the middle of her passionate plea for financial inclusion, she paused to ask the official sitting next to her, “What do you call them, free-fly...?” It took the Delhi chief minister a little while to understand the term. Only with a bit of effort could she finally pronounce the phrase “no-frills accounts”.