What do you mean by 'Financial Education'? Discuss various initiatives taken so far on Financial literacy in India.

Financial Education OECD defines Financial education as "the process by which financial consumers/ investors improve their understanding of financial products, concepts and risks and, through information, instruction and/or objective advice, develop the skills and confidence to become more aware of financial risks and opportunities, to make informed choices, to know where to go for help, and to take other effective actions to improve their financial well-being". Initiatives Taken So Far On Financial Literacy in India RBI's initiatives: Reserve Bank of India has undertaken a project titled "Project Financial Literacy" to disseminate information regarding the central bank and general banking concepts to various target groups, including school and college students, women, rural and urban poor, defense personnel and senior citizens. SEBI Initiatives: SEBI has empanelled Resource Persons throughout India to undertake financial education to various target segments viz. school students, college students, working executives, middle income group, home makers, retired personnel, self-help groups etc. The Resource Persons are given training on various aspects of finance and equipped with the knowledge about the financial markets. These SEBI Certified Resource Persons organise workshops to these target segments on various aspects viz. savings, investment, financial planning, banking, insurance, retirement planning etc. Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) Initiatives: Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has a dedicated approach for empowering investors through education and awareness building. MCA on 27th September, 2007 launched a website www.iepf.gov.in. It provides information about IEPF and the various activities that have been undertaken/ funded by it. IRDA's Initiatives on Financial Education: Awareness programmes have been conducted by IRDA on television and radio and simple messages about the rights and duties of policyholders, channels available for dispute redressal etc. have been disseminated through television and radio as well as the print media through sustained campaigns in English, Hindi and 11 other Indian languages. IRDA's Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS) creates a central repository of grievances across the country and provides for various analyses of data indicative of areas of concern to the insurance policyholder. PFRDA Initiatives on Financial Education: The PFRDA, India's youngest regulator has been engaged in spreading social security messages to the public. PFRDA has developed FAQ on pension related topics on its web, and has been associated with various non-government organizations in India in taking the pension services to the disadvantaged community. PFRDA's initiatives have become more broad-based with direct mass publicity on NPS - both as individual model through POPs and group models through Aggregators. Market players Initiatives on Financial Education: Commercial banks have initiated various measures for creating awareness through Financial Literacy and Counseling Centers and Rural Self Employment Training Institutes on financial literacy. Similarly, many Stock Exchanges, Broking Houses and Mutual Funds have initiatives in the field of financial education that spawns conducting of seminars, issuance of do's and don'ts, and newspaper campaigns. Insurance companies too, carry out campaigns and other educational activities for generic education in insurance.