Growth and performance of financial literacy centres in Karnataka state

Abstract

The present study analyed the growth and performance in the number financial literacy centres (FLCs) both at district level and Karnataka state as a whole. The study used time series data from 2008-09 to 2016-17 pertaining to the number FLCs for both overall and rural specific for calculation of compound annual growth rate. Further, the percentage increase was calculated in number of camps conducted and number of persons participated in camps during the year 2016-17 compared to 2014-15. The growth rates of total number FLCs was maximum in the case of Belagavi district (58.58%) and minimum in the case of Kodagu district (7.68%). The state as whole registered a very high growth of about 80 percent. For the state as a whole the compound annual growth rate was cent percent over years in case of number FLCs in rural area. The number of rural financial literacy centres remained stagnant at two in Bidar district and three in Kodagu district. As such, these two districts showed zero growth in the number of centres. Maximum number of FLCs in the state were sponsored by State Bank of India (45 nos). In the state as a whole, the number of camps conducted and the number of persons participated in the camps increased from 2014-15 to 2016-17. The findings of the study call for concerted efforts for improving the reach of financial awareness to more number of participants in the case of districts with low performance and less number of FLCs.