Govt to nudge PSBs to increase enrolments of its insurance schemes

The government is likely to nudge public sector banks (PSBs), which have a good foothold in rural India, to increase number of beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) to 150 million and 350 million respectively.

Currently, active enrolments under PMJJBY and PMSBY stand at 83 million and 239 million, respectively, and claims of about Rs 15,500 crore have been paid under both schemes. 

The department of financial services (DFS) -- which comes under the Union finance ministry -- has called a meeting of the managing directors (MD) & chief executive officers (CEOs) of public sector banks (PSBs) along with CEO, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on April 13 to review progress under financial inclusion and social security schemes.

The Union finance ministry has also launched a three-month campaign to achieve saturation under these two insurance schemes.

The Thursday meeting, to be chaired by DFS secretary Vivek Joshi, will be pushing PSBs to achieve saturation under PMJJBY and PMSBY, official sources told Business Standard.

According to an official, the meeting will also focus on the roadmap for PSBs in the ongoing financial year for PSBs in various financial inclusion schemes and will also review their achievement against the targets that were assigned to them for FY23. 

Under PM Svanidhi, which aims to facilitate working capital for street vendors, there will be emphasis on increasing the beneficiaries as the performance of the PSBs have not been encouraging in the last financial year, the official said.   

The number of beneficiaries under the scheme, as of March 16 of FY23 stood at 4.82 lakh, down 45 per cent from 8.86 lakh beneficiaries in FY22. The number of beneficiaries was 20.58 lakh in FY21 when the scheme was launched. The scheme has been extended till December 2024.

“The discussions will also focus on increasing the coverage of SC/ST borrowers under both Mudra Yojana and Stand Up India scheme. Under the Mudra Yojana, there will also be discussions to bring in more new entrepreneurs to create job opportunities in the economy,” the official added.

On Wednesday, the finance ministry said under the Stand up India Scheme that completed seven years, Rs 40,700 crore has been sanctioned to over 180,630 accounts. Under the scheme, more than 80 per cent of the loans have been provided to women. The scheme aims to promote entrepreneurship at grass-root level focusing on economic empowerment and job creation and has been extended up to the year 2025.