SHILLONG, March 24: In a bid to nurture the concept of financial literacy and promote it as an essential life skill, a national workshop on ‘Empowering the Youth through Financial Literacy Skills’ was organised by the Department of Economics, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in collaboration with ICSSR-NERC, on Thursday.
The workshop was inaugurated by NEHU Vice Chancello, Prof. PS Shukla, who congratulated the organiser and emphasised on the importance of financial skill for the youth for their future and for the well-being of the nation.
In his introductory remarks, Coordinator of the workshop, Prof. S Umdor, highlighted the aim of the programme which is to build participants’ understanding of the importance of financial literacy as an essential life skill for young adults and discuss options to popularise and incorporate financial education in school and colleges of the state.
He stated that young adults with financial skills have a lifelong advantage when making key financial decisions starting from education loans, entrepreneur finance, saving and investment options, retirement funds, and also to avoid making risky financial decision.
He also informed participants that the workshop coincided with the Global Money Week, which is being observed from March 21 to 27 this tear.
The workshop was also addressed by Satyajit Dwivedi, CEO of National Centre for Financial Education (NCFE), which is the national agency responsible for promoting Financial Education and create financial awareness and empowerment through financial education.
He elaborated on the National Strategy for Financial Education (NSFE) 2020-2025 with its stated goal of creating a financially aware and empowered India and explained on the functioning of the NCFE and invited collaboration from other institutes to fulfill the national mandate.
The highlight of the programme was the address by Prof Joshy Jacob of IIM-Ahmedabad, who attended the workshop in person and engaged the participants with a presentation titled ‘How far does financial literacy interventions help?’
He shared the findings on a study on impact of financial literacy training, which showed that there is a significant decline in financial knowledge and financial behavior over time.
Jacob emphasised on the importance of functional financial knowledge, supporting literacy with opportunity and the importance of collective action for better outcome.
The workshop was held on blended mode and attended by faculty of economics department representing about 25 colleges from all corners of the state, and PG students and research scholars of the department.
It may be mentioned here that financial literacy skills in India are as low as 27% as per the 2019 national survey.