Has India Protected—or Permanently Preserved—the Common Man?

“My Common Man has been around for decades. He hasn't changed. He represents the silent majority of India who tolerate everything, look at everything with a mix of bewilderment and amusement, but remain exactly where they were.”

— R.K. Laxman

The survival and well-being of the Common Man depend largely on the quality of governance. But the survival, credibility and legitimacy of the governance system itself ultimately depend on how effectively it addresses the most fundamental question confronting the ordinary citizen: Can he live with dignity, security and reasonable economic stability?

After nearly eight decades of Independence, India should not remain trapped in a system where the Common Man is repeatedly treated as a beneficiary of promises, schemes and temporary relief. The objective must be to transform him into an empowered, productive, informed and responsible citizen.

As India advances towards the vision of Viksit Bharat, this question deserves an honest examination. While a section of the population has achieved considerable economic and social progress, where does the Common Man stand today in terms of economic, financial, social and emotional security?

The welfare-oriented State has undoubtedly brought relief to millions. Social protection, food support, subsidies and access to essential services have reduced hardship and provided a vital safety net. Yet an uncomfortable question remains:Has the Common Man merely been protected—or has he, in some respects, been permanently preserved as a political and economic category defined by poverty, inadequate education, insecurity and dependence?

R.K. Laxman's legendary Common Man remains a powerful symbol of this reality. With his bewildered expression, he silently watched decades of political promises, administrative failures and social contradictions. That silence is symbolic. The Common Man is at the centre of political speeches, policy announcements and welfare programmes, yet often remains an outsider to his own development.

The Constitution, legislation, the judicial system and the administrative machinery are founded on lofty and benevolent intentions. Their purpose is to protect rights, ensure justice and promote welfare. Yet words and deeds often fail to match.The real issue is not merely the gap between promises and performance, but the inadequate accountability for closing that gap. Schemes are announced, resources allocated and benefits distributed. But the ultimate question remains:What tangible improvement has actually reached the ordinary citizen?

Welfare Must Be a Ladder, Not a Holding Pattern

Welfare is necessary. A civilised society cannot abandon those facing poverty, illness, unemployment or other forms of vulnerability. But relief cannot become the final destination.A welfare system should be a ladder for upward mobility, not a permanent holding pattern. Its purpose should be to reduce the vulnerability that makes welfare perpetually necessary.

This requires greater attention to the foundations of lasting progress: quality education, productive employment, skills, entrepreneurship, investment, infrastructure and genuine opportunities for economic mobility.True welfare should help people outgrow the conditions that made welfare necessary.

Poverty is not merely the absence of money. It is also the absence of capability, opportunity and the freedom to make meaningful choices. People must be empowered to think, decide, act, choose and judge for themselves.

Welfare can provide essential protection, but it cannot substitute for long-term economic empowerment.Employment must become productive and sustainable. Education must develop knowledge, skills, critical thinking and analytical ability. Investment must create opportunities for people to improve their lives through their own efforts.The Common Man should not be condemned to spend his entire life managing survival.

The Unfinished Struggle for Dignity

Inflation hurts the poor disproportionately. It erodes the purchasing power of limited incomes and makes food, housing, healthcare, education and transport increasingly difficult to afford.The Common Man does not necessarily seek luxury. His aspirations are modest: adequate food, a secure home, decent clothing, education for his children, healthcare, affordable transport and an opportunity to improve his life through honest work.These are not extravagant demands. They are the minimum requirements of a dignified life.Constant anxiety about the next meal, rent, school fees or medical expenses affects not only income but also peace of mind, emotional security and the ability to enjoy life.

The Common Man has shown extraordinary resilience. But it is a failure of governance when society celebrates that resilience while doing too little to remove the conditions that make it necessary.

Measure Governance by Outcomes

Governments and institutions should not be judged merely by the money allocated, the number of schemes announced or the volume of benefits distributed. They must be judged by outcomes.

How many families have permanently moved out of poverty?How many children have received genuinely quality education?How many young people have acquired productive skills and sustainable employment?

Has the purchasing power of ordinary households improved?

Are food, housing, healthcare, education and transport becoming more affordable?Are citizens becoming more economically independent?These are the questions that should determine the success of governance.

The Common Man does not need endless rhetoric. He needs visible results. He does not need to remain a permanent beneficiary. He needs an opportunity to become an independent contributor.

From Receivers to Contributors

India must move beyond the familiar cycle:

Problems → Promises → Schemes → Temporary Relief → Continuing Problems

It must create a more productive cycle:

Growth → Productive Investment → Employment → Higher Incomes → Greater Purchasing Power → Better Quality of Life → Further Growth

The task is not merely to redistribute the existing economic cake. We must also make it substantially bigger through productive investment, innovation, efficient use of resources, better governance and the full development of human potential.

Technology and intelligence should be used to generate dependable data, review policies, monitor performance, ensure accountability and measure whether national objectives are actually being achieved. Ultimately, governance must be reflected in measurable improvements in the quality of life of the people.

At the same time, the opportunities and benefits of growth must reach a much wider section of society. The objective should be to make every citizen a participant in development, not a permanent beneficiary waiting for relief.The required transformation is clear:

From Relief to Opportunity.

From Dependence to Empowerment.

From Receiving to Contributing.

From Survival to Progress.

From the Common Man to the Empowered Citizen.

From Silence to Accountability

Economic empowerment alone is not enough. A strong democracy also requires informed and responsible citizens.People must not remain passive recipients of what the Government provides. They must learn to observe, understand, question and participate. Public institutions exist to serve the people and must remain accountable for their performance.

Citizens should become constructive watchdogs and ask:Are institutions performing the functions for which they were created?Are public resources being properly utilised?Are policies producing the promised results? Who is accountable when institutions fail?Are the benefits of development actually reaching the people?

Democracy becomes stronger when the people who elect governments also evaluate the performance of the institutions created to serve them.The transformation we need is:

From Passive Citizens to Thinking Citizens.

From Beneficiaries to Participants.

From Silence to Constructive Questioning.

From Blind Acceptance to Informed Accountability.

The Real Meaning of Welfare

India certainly needs a welfare State. Compassion and protection of the vulnerable are essential responsibilities of a civilised society. But the ultimate purpose of welfare cannot be to maintain a permanent class of beneficiaries.It must transform:

Dependence into Capability.

Capability into Productivity.

Productivity into Dignity.

Dignity into Shared Prosperity.

The ultimate test of welfare is not how many people remain dependent on it, but how many it enables to outgrow the conditions that made welfare necessary.

After nearly eight decades of Independence, perhaps the most important transformation India can achieve is to enable the silent Common Man to step out of the frame—not as a permanently protected and managed citizen, but as an educated, economically secure, self-reliant, discerning and confident participant in India's future.

The Government may govern, institutions may administer and experts may advise—but an alert, informed and responsible people must continuously watch, question and contribute.That should be the next great transformation.

Not the preservation of the Common Man as a permanent beneficiary, but his emergence as an empowered citizen—capable of earning, aspiring, contributing, questioning and living with dignity.

That should be the true meaning of welfare.

That should be the ultimate test of governance.

An enlightened and concerned citizen is a performing and contributing asset to the nation. The need of the hour is to transform all Indians into conscious stakeholders in nation-building—committed, involved and willing to contribute their time, talent and effort towards realising the dream of Viksit Bharat, in letter and spirit.

India's greatest national asset is not merely its population, but an enlightened, responsible and participating citizenry. End this write up with a quote.

"Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming after all, is a form of planning." Gloria Steinem. 

Samastha Loka Sukhino Bhavanthu.

T V G Krishnan 

( personal views) 

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Life is worth living to Experience its Many Facets.

 

Life Is Worth Living to Experience Its Many Facets

“The purpose of religion and secular ethics is to make life more human. We are all members of one human family. Different faiths may serve different needs, but the health we seek is the same: a peaceful mind, a compassionate heart, and a life that brings less suffering and more happiness to others.”— His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama

Life is a precious gift. To live is to experience its many facets—to see, feel, think, learn, create, love, struggle, achieve, share and grow. Every human being is born with the fundamental gift of life and the energy to live it. Nature does not discriminate. Air, water, light, heat, space and countless other resources sustain all living beings.

Yet our lives unfold differently. Family, circumstances, geography, education, opportunities and social surroundings influence the course of life. At the same time, human beings possess the ability to learn, think, innovate and act. Through knowledge,  rational thinking, effort and responsible action, we can shape much of our own destiny.

Over centuries, humanity has created science, technology, institutions, cultures, religions and systems of governance to meet its needs and improve the quality of life. We have conquered distances, expanded knowledge, created extraordinary progress and unprecedented comforts and connected people across continents by establishing an interconnected world. The whole universe has become borderless and  remain  well connected. Yet this progress has also created a striking paradox.Connection without attachment has led only to isolation, loneliness and desperation for no justifiable reason or logic . In the process , some avoidable contradictions have come to surface. 

Human beings have divided themselves in the name of faith, ideology, race, status, wealth, power and political identity. Politics, which should serve society, has too often become a struggle for dominance. Autocracy, democracy and competing political ideologies have all been shaped by human ambitions and conflicts. Extremism, intolerance, hatred and the desire for power have repeatedly produced violence, war and suffering.

Even education and technology, which should unite humanity through knowledge and understanding, can become instruments of division when they are used without wisdom and responsibility. Digital technology has connected the world as never before, yet human beings have not necessarily become more understanding, peaceful or compassionate.

The paradox is striking: the world has acquired enormous material wealth and knowledge, but has yet to discover the wisdom to live together. The tendency to  invade nature is on the increase though it continually reminds us of our limitations. Earthquakes, floods, storms, wildfires, changing climates and other natural forces demonstrate that human beings cannot permanently dominate the forces of nature. Nature provides the foundations of life, and when those foundations are disturbed, the consequences are ultimately felt by everyone. Human beings cannot ignore the natural foundations of life. We may transform nature, but we must also learn to live with nature.

 We continue to divide ourselves in the name of faith, ideology, race, status, wealth, power and political identity. Technology, education and politics, which can unite and uplift humanity, are often used for division, conflict and dominance. This leads us to a fundamental question: What do we really mean by progress? Is progress merely greater wealth, technology, infrastructure and material comfort? Or should it also mean peace, dignity, justice, security, happiness, harmony with nature and freedom from fear?

The Meaning of True Progress

The world today possesses much of what is needed for a better life—knowledge, science, technology, resources, infrastructure and global communication. What is still missing is the wisdom and collective will to use these achievements for the common good. Perhaps humanity must look beyond its divisions and rediscover a simple truth: life itself is common to us all.

The ancient Indian ideal of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam—The World Is One Family expresses this interconnectedness. It reminds us that the well-being of one cannot ultimately be separated from the well-being of others or from the health of the planet we share. We have learnt how to accumulate wealth, but we must also learn to share opportunity. We have learnt to communicate instantly, but we must learn to understand one another. We have created powerful technologies; now we need the wisdom and responsibility to use them for the benefit of humanity.

The question before all of us—thinkers, scientists, educators, leaders, rulers, reformers, intellectuals, institutions and citizens—is simple but profound: What kind of world do we want to leave for future generations?

The answer cannot lie merely in greater competition for wealth, power and dominance. It must be found in cooperation, compassion, responsible freedom, mutual respect and the wise use of nature's resources.

The Responsibility of Institutions

This responsibility belongs not only to individuals but also to every institution, public or private.

Governments, legislatures, courts, educational institutions, hospitals, banks, businesses and all organisations engaged in public or private service have an important role in improving the quality of human life. They should function with integrity, accountability, fairness and, above all, a human touch.

Rules, technology, efficiency and profits have their place, but they should remain means, not ends. The ultimate purpose of every institution should be to serve human welfare and contribute to a better quality of life. When institutions function with ethical values, a spirit of service and genuine concern for people, they can transform civic, cultural and social life. Peace everywhere and happiness all around should become a conscious and practical objective in the delivery of every service. The misuse of power, technology, institutions and developmental activities must be prevented so that progress does not create new forms of exploitation, inequality or suffering.

The Wisdom to Live Better Together

Life is not meant merely to be survived or spent accumulating material possessions. It is meant to be lived, experienced and shared—with the simple attitude: Live well and let others also live well.

Nature gives us the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we grow and countless other forces that sustain life. Its abundance is not something to be taken for granted or merely consumed. It must be respected, protected and shared. Perhaps this is the ultimate wisdom humanity needs: To enjoy life without destroying the conditions that make life possible; to seek prosperity without denying others their opportunities; and to live freely without forgetting our responsibility to one another and to nature. If humanity can combine knowledge with wisdom, freedom with responsibility, development with sustainability, and individual achievement with concern for the common good, the world can become a better place for everyone.

We have learnt much about how to live better. Perhaps it is now time to learn how to live better together.That is the real meaning of progress. And that is why life is worth living—as long as nature and its life forces permit us to experience, enjoy and share its many facets. “Balancing the inner and outer facets of life—while engaging meaningfully with politics, economics, social developments and technological advancement—is a real blessing that enables us to live with contentment, fulfilment and a fuller appreciation of life.”

Samastha Loka Sukhino Bhavantu

May all beings in all the worlds be happy.

T V G Krishnan

(personal Views). 

Banks write offs at whose Cost? Have the stakeholders of Banks thought about it?

 Bank of Baroda Writes Off ₹35,715 Crore of Loans above ₹100 Crore, Refuses To Disclose Big Defaulters’ Names under RTI Money Life 19th Aug 2026.

This sort of write offs of bad loans using other stake holders funds in the bank who include depositors , good borrowers, employees, share holders and government has no justification what so ever. The situations led to write offs and the details of borrowers whose accounts have been written off technically in banks books should be made transparent as depositors' and employees' sacrifice definitely be much more than their affordability . Depositors are paid less than 7% for their FDs and less than 3.5 %for their Savings Bank deposits and thus the money saved by banks are passed on to big borrowers and eventually written offs as disclosed now. With this background being a reality , banks and borrowers have no moral right to get subsidised for their inefficiencies and business losses to make it good from the poor stake holders of banks. The depositors even have to pay Income tax on this meagre savings without even adjusting for inflation which is always more than the int rate. This is something very pathetic. It is time to fully justify and make it transparent as to what has happened to these borrowers and how and why the accounts became bad and why the banks and borrowers cannot think of some inbuilt mechanism to make up for such bad debts losses without hurting the innocent stake holders.

Is it that banks generate bad loans only to loot the stakeholders hard earned money given to banks to develop the economy?  

T V Gopalakrishnan

( modified version of this comment  was given in response to the Article on Bank of Baroda's write offs referred to above)

The Need for a Rare Feat to fix inflation and save the masses from high cost of living.

 Dear Sir,

                         

Apropos your article "Fiscally Fit to Beat Inflation" (editorial page, ET 19th Aug), the economy's strength is reflected in the rupee's value, impressive GDP growth, a strong fiscal balance and stable inflation. Unstable inflation kills the poorest of the poor, takes away the joy of living and leaves them unhedged against the ever-increasing prices of food items and the rising cost of living fuelled by continuous and unstoppable increases in the prices of oil, transport, education, insurance, medical care, and more. Perhaps the only way to fight inflation is to hedge the economy against fuel, food, fertiliser, and fiscal deficit by establishing separate price stabilisation funds. These funds would manage essential, inherently inflationary items whose prices are unfortunately linked to exchange rates dependent not only on poorly managed national socio-economic conditions but also international ones. Geopolitical uncertainties and international price movements of oil and other sensitive commodities like gold and silver, which the poor seldom use for their day-to-day lives, need to be factored in and managed effectively by a meaningful governance system. This would spare people from inflationary price increases on all their consumption items. Taxes should be divided into inflationary and non-inflationary categories. Levies should become extra taxes on non-inflationary items, insulating the majority of the common masses, this should become the standard for fiscal discipline.It is time to revisit the tinkering approach to the taxation policies. Policy reforms should closely associate with inflation/non-inflation, equitable wealth distribution, and sensitive geopolitical conditions influencing exchange rate stability and the movement of goods and services linked to unpredictable tariffs.      

T.V.Gopalakrishnan

Bengaluru 

( Letter Sent to the Economic Times). 

Governance is a universal and people centric Principle..

 Governance is a Universal and People-Centric Principle

Reforms and Regulation PM Speech

"We created a clear road map for reforms and the main direction has been -reforms at level of Governance! For this, we are not just changing Regulations, we are changing the entire philosophy of regulation. The decisions that change the country are those whose impact is visible on the ground , and are taken both the present and future in mind. " (ET dated 24th Aug)   

Freedom → responsibility → good governance → institutional performance → welfare of all.

Good governance is ultimately responsible human living organised through institutions, guided by values, disciplined by accountability and protected by the rule of law. Its purpose is to ensure that democracy delivers not merely government, but justice, social order, sustainable progress and a better quality of life for all. 

Democracy provides the mandate; governance provides the mechanism; accountability provides the discipline; and the rule of law provides the foundation. Together, they should convert a nation's vision into action, mission into performance and policies into meaningful outcomes.

Governance Beyond Government

Governance is not limited to government. It is a universal principle that applies wherever people have responsibilities, exercise authority, use resources or affect the lives of others:

Individual → Family → Institution → Society → State → Nation → Humanity

Every institution—public or private, commercial or non-commercial—should therefore be judged by four simple questions:

Purpose: Why does it exist?
Conduct: How does it discharge its responsibilities?
Performance: How effectively does it achieve its objectives and use its resources?
Social Value: What legitimate benefit does it create for people and society?

Thus:

Vision and Mission tell us what we intend to achieve.
Governance determines whether we achieve it.
Values determine how we achieve it.
Outcomes determine whether society benefits from it.

Values, Duties and Responsibility

Responsible governance begins with responsible human conduct. Nature provides resources universally; their use and distribution therefore carry a responsibility to ensure equity, sustainability and social justice.

Development should consequently mean:

Progress with social justice
Freedom with responsibility
Rights with duties
Authority with accountability
Resources with stewardship
Governance with measurable outcomes

Economic growth alone cannot be the measure of progress. The true measure is whether development improves the lives of people and creates opportunities for all to participate in its benefits. It is time for every individual and every institution to perform to its full potential and contribute to making  Viksit Bharat a reality. Our collective endeavour must be to build an India that is prosperous, just, inclusive and a true welfare State in every respect.

 When Governance Fails

Good governance should identify weaknesses early, correct failures and preserve public trust. When failures accumulate without correction, the progression can become:

Weak governance → Unresolved failures → Loss of trust → Loss of institutional authority → Non-compliance → Disorder → Persistent disorder → Conditions approaching anarchy

Anarchy may arise from many causes. But prolonged or systemic disorder within a functioning democracy is a serious test of governance. The wiser question is therefore not merely how to control disorder after it appears, but how to prevent the institutional and social conditions that allow it to emerge.

The People-Centric Test

Institutions ultimately exist to serve legitimate human and social purposes. Their success should therefore be measured not simply by their size, power, profit or survival, but by the value they create for people and society.

The ultimate test of governance is simple:

Does the way we govern our individuals, families, institutions, society and State enable people to live with dignity, exercise freedom responsibly, fulfil their duties, receive fair opportunities and participate meaningfully in the benefits of progress?

If the answer is increasingly yes, governance is working.

If the answer is increasingly no, there is a governance problem—however impressive the laws, policies and institutions may appear on paper.

Good governance is therefore not merely the administration of laws. It is the continuous conversion of democratic authority, ethical values, institutional responsibility and the rule of law into justice, social order, sustainable progress and a better quality of life for all.The impact of the Governance every where and in every Institution should be visible at the ground level in the overall welfare of the people .

Good governance is ultimately about serving people, strengthening institutions and ensuring that progress benefits society fairly and responsibly. I conclude this write up with a quote from Whats ap message widely circulated on the eve of 80th year of independence celebrated on the 15th Aug 2026. 

               "Freedom is not a legacy to celebrate ;it is a responsibility to protect".  

Samastha Loka Sukhino Bhavanthu.

T V G Krishnan

(personal Views)

New Generation Banking Challenges and Issues

A new-generation intelligence framework for banking

KYC to UYC, AI to MI to HI to Total Intelligence

Can All These Bring Ethics and Accountability to Digital Payments?

Digital payments, particularly through UPI, have grown by leaps and bounds, reaching levels that were almost unimaginable a few years ago. In large parts of the country, especially in the retail and mass-payment segments, the use of currency notes has declined substantially. This is a remarkable reflection of India's technological progress and, more importantly, the widespread acceptance of that progress by its people.

The growth of digital payments has enormous potential for the economy. It can improve transparency, reduce transaction costs, widen financial inclusion and gradually overcome several weaknesses associated with cash-based transactions and traditional administrative systems.

But technology, however advanced, is only a means. The more important question is whether technology can also help strengthen ethics, values, honesty, integrity and accountability in the financial system.provided technology is combined with human judgement and a deeper understanding of the customer.  From “Know Your Customer” to “Understand Your Customer”

The banking system has long operated on the principle of Know Your Customer (KYC). KYC is indispensable for establishing the identity and address of a customer and preventing the misuse of banking channels. But in the digital era, knowing who the customer is may no longer be enough. What may increasingly be required is “Understand Your Customer” (UYC).

Within the limits of privacy and legitimate banking practice, UYC could help banks understand a customer's normal transaction behaviour, financial patterns, likely vulnerabilities and significant deviations from established patterns. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can make such analysis possible on a scale that human beings alone cannot manage. This could help identify suspicious transactions, unusual transfers, possible account misuse and even genuine mistakes before they become difficult to rectify.

A Simple Example

Consider a customer of Bank A making a UPI payment through a third-party interface such as PhonePe and, through an inadvertent mistake, transferring money to an unintended beneficiary whose account is with Bank B. The customer realises the mistake and immediately approaches Bank A. Technically, the payment was authorised by the customer and the money has already moved through the payment system. The payer's bank may therefore have limited ability to reverse the transaction unilaterally. But should the matter necessarily end there?

Once the error is reported, the banking and payment ecosystem should, wherever legally permissible, have mechanisms to identify the transaction, alert the beneficiary bank, place an appropriate hold or caution and facilitate recovery when the circumstances establish that the payment was genuinely erroneous.

Technical authorisation should not, by itself, settle the larger question of ethical ownership and institutional responsibility. The beneficiary has received money which, in such circumstances, was never intended for him or her. The banking system should therefore endeavour to facilitate correction rather than simply treating the transaction as closed because authentication was successful.

The Reserve Bank of India, perhaps through appropriate mechanisms under its Banking Ombudsman framework, together with banks' own persuasion and moral-suasion approaches within permissible parameters, could consider workable arrangements for dealing with such cases. The objective should be simple: to help ensure that money ultimately reaches its rightful destination based on entitlement and legitimate obligation. The person not entitled or intended by the sender cannot be allowed to enjoy such wrong credits by any means. Human or technical error should not be allowed to override ethics and morality.

AI as a Second Line of Defence .

This is where AI can become a powerful second line of defence. AI can potentially detect unusual behaviour at the point of transaction—a sudden departure from established payment patterns, unusually large or repeated transfers, unusual beneficiary relationships or other warning signals. Depending on the risk involved and the regulatory framework, such signals could trigger an alert, confirmation or additional verification. More importantly, AI need not stop working once the transaction is completed.

In the post-transaction stage, technology could help trace the movement of funds, identify the beneficiary institution, establish the relevant circumstances and facilitate a structured resolution when a genuine mistake has occurred. Technology should therefore not merely make money move faster. It should also make mistakes easier to detect and rectify.

Fraud Prevention Requires More Than KYC . Frauds involving bank accounts, identity misuse, social engineering and exploitation of digital platforms are constantly evolving. KYC establishes who the customer is, but it does not necessarily establish whether a particular transaction is consistent with that customer's normal behaviour. That is the gap UYC could help address.At the same time, such an approach must never become an excuse for indiscriminate surveillance or intrusion into legitimate customer privacy. There must be clear safeguards, proportionality, transparency and accountability in the collection, analysis and use of customer information. The objective should be better understanding, not unnecessary intrusion.

AI Cannot Replace Human Intelligence .There is also a danger in believing that AI can solve everything. It cannot. AI can identify patterns, correlations and anomalies at extraordinary speed. But Human Intelligence (HI) provides judgement, context, experience, empathy and accountability.The objective should therefore not be AI replacing human beings, but AI strengthening human intelligence and institutional responsibility. A genuinely customer-oriented bank should be able to ask not merely:

“Was the transaction technically authorised?”but also “Does the transaction make sense in the context of the customer, and if something has clearly gone wrong, what responsibility can the banking system reasonably assume in helping to correct it?” That represents an important change in institutional thinking—from merely processing transactions to understanding their circumstances and consequences.

Market Intelligence Adds Another Dimension

There is yet another dimension that can make this framework much more comprehensive: Market Intelligence (MI). KYC tells the bank who the customer is. UYC helps it understand how the customer normally behaves. AI analyses patterns and anomalies, while Human Intelligence interprets what those signals actually mean. But a customer does not operate in isolation.

Market Intelligence can provide information about the environment in which the customer operates—industry conditions, markets, competitors, suppliers, customers, prices, demand, regulatory developments and emerging risks. 

A Powerful Application: Credit and NPA Prevention

This becomes particularly valuable in credit appraisal and NPA prevention. A borrower may have an excellent KYC profile and an apparently satisfactory account. Yet Market Intelligence may reveal that the borrower's industry is deteriorating, major customers are under stress, commodity prices have changed sharply, or the market itself is becoming increasingly unviable.

AI may simultaneously detect corresponding changes in the borrower's account operations. Human Intelligence can investigate and interpret the signals. The bank can then take appropriate corrective action before the problem develops into an NPA. The same approach could strengthen monitoring of the end-use of funds, early-warning systems and responsible lending. From Identification to Responsible Decision-Making.Thus, a much broader intelligence architecture begins to emerge:

KYC + UYC + MI + AI + HI = Total Intelligence

Each has a distinct role:

KYC identifies.

UYC understands.

MI contextualises.

AI analyses.

HI interprets.

Total Intelligence decides.

The concept is not to create a system that knows everything about everyone. Nor is it intended to create excessive surveillance. Its purpose should be to enable banks to make better, more responsible and timely decisions while respecting privacy, legitimate freedom and the rights of customers.

From Transaction Processing to Responsible Banking

No financial system can realistically be made completely foolproof. Human beings will always find new ways of circumventing systems. But an intelligent combination of KYC, UYC, Market Intelligence, AI and Human Intelligence could make banking considerably more preventive, transparent, resilient and accountable. India has already demonstrated that technology can transform the way millions of people transact. UPI is a powerful example of how rapidly people can adopt technology when it is convenient, inexpensive and accessible.

The next challenge is to ensure that trust keeps pace with technologyDigital payments should not merely be fast; they should be safe They should not merely be convenient; they should be accountable.They should not merely prevent fraud; they should also provide meaningful mechanisms for correcting genuine mistakes. And banks should not merely “know” their customers; they should increasingly understand them, while respecting privacy and individual freedom. Ultimately, technology should not be allowed to become an excuse for avoiding responsibility. The more powerful our technological systems become, the greater should be the emphasis on human values, ethical judgement and institutional accountability.

The real opportunity before the banking system is therefore not simply to build a more sophisticated digital payment system, but to build a more intelligent and responsible financial system.Technology has already changed the way India moves money. The next step is to ensure that it also strengthens the values with which money is handled.That may be the true meaning of moving from KYC to UYC, from AI and MI to HI, and ultimately towards Total Intelligence.

Samastha Loka Sukhino Bhavanthu. 

T V G Krishnan

(Personal Views)

Why not only Transaction Fee instead of Many other taxes?

 Dear Sir,

Why not only a transaction fee instead of many other taxes? Simplify taxes by removing various other taxes.

Apropos your editorial, "Why UPI Needs Transaction Fees" (ET Aug 7), UPI in India is a grand success and has become as good as a currency in circulation, eliminating the cost of printing hard currency, its storage, distribution  maintaining currency chests, and the quality of printed currency. UPI is faster and relatively safe.   Many other countries are adopting it because of its convenience, handling and comparatively better accounting, and tracking of information regarding how and where the money moves. This helps enable the building of a huge mine of information/data, assisting policymakers from a broader perspective. UPI's very success in India is because it carries no cost perhaps the only exemption seen in the whole system of transactions. If this is also brought under some levy,  it may catch on in such a way that the levying becomes attractive over a period, building inflationary expectations and adding to the cost of living without any escape route later on. If the very thought of MDR is not nipped in the bud, it may turn out to be an inevitable source of revenue like many others already in vogue. This could introduce unhealthy practices adding to the list of worries from administrative and policy angles.  If transaction fees can replace so many other taxes including Income Tax, no doubt that would be  a very welcome and transformative change worth pursuing.      

(  this letter addressed to ET )

T.V.G Krishnan

(personal views) 

( This letter was sent to ET ).