India - Employment and Unemployment : NSS 68th round, Schedule 10, July 2011- June 2012

Savings bank account can be opened either as an individual account or a joint account. The savings bank provides for cheque facility also. In the recurring deposit account, deposit should be made every month and default fee is chargeable for delayed deposit. The recurring deposit has a provision for premature closure on completion of three years after opening the account. Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) is viewed as safe and sure way to get a regular monthly income. This scheme is specially suited for retired employees/ senior citizens or any one with high sum for investment. The maturity period for MIS is six years. MIS has provision for auto credit facility to savings bank account. Only one public provident fund (PPF) account can be opened in the name of a person. Deposits in PPF account qualify for Income Tax rebate subject to a maximum limit of Rs. 70,000. The maturity period of the National Savings Certificate (NSC) is 6 years. No premature encashment of NSC is permitted in the normal course. However premature encashment of NSC can be allowed after the expiry of three years from the date of purchase of certificate. A single time deposit account or joint time deposit account can be opened for 1 year, 2 year, 3 year and 5 year period. 2 year, 3 year and 5 year time deposit accounts can be closed after one year at a discount. Money doubles in 8 years and 7 months for kisan vikas patra and it has a provision for premature encashment. The Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS) is a new avenue of investment and return for Senior Citizen. The account may be opened by an individual, (i) who has attained age of 60 years or above on the date of opening of the account, or (ii) who has attained the age 55 years or more but less than 60 years and has retired under a voluntary retirement scheme or a special voluntary retirement scheme on the date of opening of the account within three months from the date of retirement. However, there is no age limit for the retired personnel of defence services. Under SCSS no withdrawal is permitted before the expiry of a period of five years from the date of opening of the account and the depositor may extend the account for a further period of 3 years. Premature closure of account is permitted after deduction at specified rates.

In items 14 to 17 of Block-3 ( i.e Household characteristics) of the current schedule-10, information will be collected on whether any member(s) of the household is a holder of specified Post Office account(s) or savings instruments of Department of Post, Government of India, and if any member(s) of the household is a holder of specified Post Office account(s), number of such accounts held by all the members of the household as on the date of survey will be recorded. The specified accounts for which information will be collected are:

i) saving bank account,
ii) recurring deposit account,
iii) monthly income account, and
iv) any other accounts or savings instruments, such as public provident fund account, national savings certificate, kisan vikas patra, time deposit, senior citizens savings scheme, etc.

For each type of account listed against items 14 to 17, two columns have been provided. In the first column, information on whether any member of the household has the specified account will be recorded. If any household member has the specified account entry will be 1 and entry will be 2 if no member of the household has the specified account. On the other hand, if the informant reports that he/she does not know whether any member of the household has the specified post office account entry will be 9 against that item. For the item(s) with entry 1, i.e., if any household member is holding the specific type of account, the number of such accounts held by all the household members will be recorded in the next column against that item. It may be noted that in item 17, besides the types of accounts listed in items 14 to 16, information will be recorded for any other type of accounts or savings instruments