Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday launched a remittance gateway for overseas Indians to send money to any place in the country within 24 hours.
The Integrated Remittances Gateway, launched at the fourth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, was developed by the ministry of overseas Indian affairs in partnership with UTI Bank and Doha Bank.
It provides faster and cost-effective means for the Indian diaspora to send money from anywhere to India within 24 hours.
The remittances can be currently sent through 14,500 banks under Real Time Global Settlement (RTGS) but the finance minister said the remittances could be sent to any part of the country with hundreds of more banks coming under RTGS.
An NRI can transfer money to India by availing the service provided on the ministry website.
UTI Bank chief PJ Nayak gave a demonstration of the service before delegates and the transaction was completed in 20 seconds.
Lauding the significant contribution made by the overseas Indian to the Indian economy, Chidambaram hoped that the remittances would go up from $21.7 billion in 2004 to $24 billion in 2005.
He assured the overseas Indians that the government would follow "sensible economic policies" to ensure that the economy continues to grow so that "you can send the money to your families with greater confidence".
{{/usCountry}}He assured the overseas Indians that the government would follow "sensible economic policies" to ensure that the economy continues to grow so that "you can send the money to your families with greater confidence".
{{/usCountry}}Pointing out that the economy grew by 8.1 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year, Chidambaram was confident that for the full year the growth would be 7 to 7.5 per cent.
"I am confident that India will become an economic powerhouse and it is within our grasp to ensure that there is no abject poverty in the country," he said.
The finance minister promised to continue economic reforms for fiscal prudence, controlling fiscal deficit and inflation, liberalizing trade and external economy and investing in physical and social infrastructure.
He said the reforms would continue in the financial sector and capital market and the bills to amend the Reserve Bank of India Act to strengthen the banking regulatory mechanism and liberalise the insurance sector would be tabled in the budget session of parliament.