NCFE-NFLAT National and Western Region Award Ceremony
On 11thand 12thJanuary this year, students of classes VIII to X, across the country appeared for the First ever National Financial Literacy Assessment Test (NFLAT). The response to the first initiative of National Centre for Financial Education (NCFE) had been overwhelming with around 1,00,000 students and 2000 schools registering for the test from all over the country. NCFE has been set up under National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) with the support of RBI, SEBI, IRDA, PFRDA and FMC.
The National and Western Region Award Ceremonies were held on 5th April, 2014 in College of Agricultural Banking (CAB), Pune, an Institute of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The student and school award winners were felicitated here. The Chief Guest for the event was Dr.K.C. Chakrabarty, Chairman, Technical Group on Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy of the sub-committee of the FSDC and Deputy Governor, RBI.
Ms. Meena Hemachandra, Principal, CAB, Mr. A.S.Bhattacharya, Director, Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), Mr. Sandip Ghose, Director, NISM and Mr.G.P.Garg, Registrar, NISM and Head, NCFE addressed the audience. Mr. Padmanabha, CEO, NSE-IT, Ms. Supriya Roy, Director, FMC and faculty from the CAB were also present at this event.
Speaking on this occasion, Dr. K.C.Chakrabarty congratulated the winners and impressed upon the audience the meaning of literacy in the current scenario. He highlighted the gap in financial knowledge that exists in the society today and stressed on the growing importance of financial literacy globally. He said that reading and writing was only first generation literacy, the second generation being IT literacy. However, in today’s information age we need to be third generation literate that involves being financially literate as well. He reiterated the importance of including financial literacy material in the school curriculum and congratulated NCFE for taking the first step in this direction.
Mr. Bhattacharya, Director, IBPS also praised the winners on taking the first step towards financial prudence and encouraged them to progress step by step to build a bright future. IBPS was the testing and knowledge partner for NCFE-NFLAT and had waived-off its fee for the national cause.
The full day event started with the awardees visiting RBI’s Archives and Financial Inclusion & Financial Literacy Learning Centre. Throughout this guided tour, the students enthusiastically took part in different activities and also clarified their doubts from the faculty of CAB. The attendees also enjoyed a short film on “Financial Literacy and Inclusion”.
The other regional award ceremonies will be conducted in coming weeks. Encouraged by the success of this year’s test, NCFE plans to make NFLAT an annual event in the school calendars.
