National Stock exchange (NSE) has become aggressive and this time our sleeping giant post office friend has also woken as NSE has this time partnered with India Post of the Government of India, to start a financial literacy initiative at fifty post offices in the country.
In Uttarakhand, the first such tie up was started at Haridwar on the 23rd of August and followed by Kotdwar on the 24th of August. The alliance between the two leading institutions, NSE and India Post, involves the setting up of a large sized screen at the post office on Badrinath Marg at Kotdwar.
The screen will keep flashing data on NSE’s benchmark index, Nifty 50, data on stocks and other indices, advice on investing wisely as well as information on products of India Post. The screen was inaugurated by Mr. M C Pande, superintendent, post offices, Kotdwar, Ms. Rana Usman, Assistant Vice President and Head of the Delhi branch of NSE and Ms. Renu Bhandari, Chief Manager, NSE. Kotdwar, which literally means the gateway to Garhwal, has an enviable position in Uttarakhand, because pilgrims on their way to the Kedarnath and Badrinath temples, begin their journey from Kotdwar. Heavy tourist traffic in Kotdwar coupled with good rail connectivity to the rest of the State has contributed to making Kotdwar an important hub of trade and commerce.
Through its financial literacy campaign at the post office, NSE wants to reach out to the residents of Kotdwar, as well as the millions of tourists, who cross this town every year, to help them grow their investments. Joint Managing Director of NSE, Ms. Chitra Ramkrishna said, “India Post has a very large reach, through which we aim to increase financial literacy in the tier two and tier three cities of India. We hope this educational drive, “Jagruti” will help the residents of Kotdwar, to learn more about finance, so that they can grow their savings and ensure their financial well-being.’’
The screen at the Kotdwar post office will carry information on the do’s and don’ts of trading, to encourage investors to trade safely. For instance, the screen will flash messages like: ‘don’t share your trading password with anyone’, ‘it is not mandatory to give a power of attorney to your broker’, ‘don’t submit an incomplete KYC form’ and insist on a contract note for all the trades executed in your name and so on.
The screen will also convey information on products for retail investors like Gold exchange traded funds and Nifty exchange traded funds, cost effective and transparent options to invest in gold and NSE’s benchmark index,
Nifty 50. An investor can invest in very small amounts of just around Rs. 500, to buy one unit of Nifty.
It will also showcase information on products of India Post, like Online money transfers, Electronic money orders, Speed post, Savings certificates, Postal life insurance and Logistics solutions for Corporates.
This is a good initiative taken and shows the ingenuity of the premium stock exchange where it is targetting the population which invariably gets left out as these days people generally use the courier service and rarely go to postfoffice except in unusual circumstances like buying revenue stamp. So, they have taken a right step as the target population needs to be channelised to stock market and this initiative by NSE launching the financial literacy initiative 'Jagruti' in Kotdwar, in partnership with India Post is commendable.