CFA Society India volunteers ride for Jan Nivesh Abhiyaan, a Financial Literacy initiative

by Suman Gupta

Mumbai 11th November: The CFA Society India, established in April 2005, is an association of local investment professionals, consisting of portfolio managers, security analysts, investment advisors and other financial professionals who promote ethical and professional standards within the investment industry in India. In its endeavour to promote Financial Literacy to the masses, CFA Society India is organising Jan Nivesh Abhiyaan – an initiative on cycles, from 15th to 29th November.

The 14-day tour will be flagged off on November 15th 2019, simultaneously from Gurugram and Mumbai. The cyclists from both regions will converge in Ahmedabad and proceed together to the final destination Indore which will witness the biggest investor seminar with about 5000 attendees. All Cyclists who are part of the initiative are volunteers of the CFA society and are eminent personalities in the field of finance and wealth management.

The distance from Mumbai and Gurugram to Indore is roughly 1300 Km and covers a vast expanse of the country’s North West corridor and includes 22 halts and over 50 pit stops across the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. At each halt, the CFA Society India will be conducting sessions reach out to the local communities to create awareness of the various policies that promote thrift as well as educate them on the various measures that the regulators and policymakers have undertaken to create a healthy eco-system for individual savings and investments. This will be done through a panel of speakers – financial planning practitioners and investment specialists – communicating with the locals about the benefits of goal-based planning for individual savings.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajendra Kalur, Director, CFA Society India, said “One of the key reasons for embarking on the mission is the growing realization that despite the rise in GDP and the high individual savings rate the level of financial literacy in India is amongst the lowest in the world. This creates a great degree of dissonance as the nation embarks on an ambitious plan to become a $5 trillion economy. As the economy grows larger, it also becomes more complex and hence the urgent need to not only increase penetration of banking and other financial products but also raise financial awareness levels. While SEBI has mandated that a certain portion of the fund TER be allocated for investor education, there also exists a need for greater financial education among segments who are currently not Mutual Fund investors or are out of the pale of regulated products, since a lot of the financial mistakes occur in this segment”.