Modi promises access to banking for India's poor

By Manoj Kumar NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised on Friday greater access to financial services for nearly 500 million Indians who do not have a bank account, many of whom are now at the mercy of money lenders who charge extortionate interest. "He takes a loan from a money lender that he cannot return and dies," Modi, 63, said in his Independence Day address. "For his daughter's marriage, a poor man takes a loan from the money lender that he cannot return." Modi's push to achieve greater financial inclusion among India's population was one of the few initiatives he announced in the landmark annual address delivered from the ramparts of Old Delhi's 17th century Red Fort. His other big announcement was the scrapping of a Soviet-style state Planning Commission, reflecting his focus on overhauling a system of government that he found riddled with competing "fiefdoms" when he took office in May. India counted 146,373 suicides by farmers between 2004 and 2012, according to government estimates. Read More http://ift.tt/1ozpEu3