Union Minister Anurag Singh launches IEPFA's 'Hisab Ki Kitaab'

Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Anurag Singh Thakur, has launched Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority's (IEPFA) six modules of short films, titled "Hisaab Ki Kitaab", the Ministry of Corporate Affairs informed on Thursday.

Developed by Common Service Centres (CSC) eGov, as a part of their training tool, the "Hisaab ki kitaab" is a series of 6 short films of 5 minutes each.

These modules highlight the importance of budget and savings, and that of Insurance schemes and other social security schemes of the government.

"The modules interestingly portray the consequences of a common man falling prey to the schemes and how they should protect themselves from Ponzi schemes. These short films will be used by IEPFA and its partnering organisation for Investor Awareness Programs across the country", the ministry said.

A trivia of all the 6 modules was showcased during the launch.

While launching the short films, Thakur said that financial inclusion is one of the top-most policy priorities of the Government of India.

"Financial literacy and education play a crucial role in financial inclusion, inclusive growth, and sustainable prosperity. In financial inclusion, a number of steps have been taken by the Government. As a result, large sections of the population have been brought into the formal financial fold. In this context, promoting and deepening financial education would play a very important part in our endeavour to realise our collective potential," he said.

Talking about the blurring urban-rural divide in India, due to digitalisation, Thakur said, "The mandate of IEPF Authority is to build investor awareness among various stakeholders in the rural and urban areas. Due to the digital global community, the urban-rural divide in India is blurring. Yet the behaviour change in the rural populace with respect to investment and long term financial planning needs to be triggered."

The virtual launch of the event was attended by Rajesh Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), and other senior officials.

Lauding the innovative methods of IEPFA for dissemination of investor-related messages, Verma said, "I am sure that these short films developed by CSC eGov in interesting format will help the rural populace to understand the importance of basic concepts of Budget, savings, various schemes of the government and of course, how to save themselves from Ponzi schemes".

( With inputs from ANI )