Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced the launch of a home loans scheme, called Rajiv Housing Loan Scheme, which will provide interest subsidy on home loans of less than 5 lakh. The new housing loans scheme is aimed at the urban poor of the country.

While addressing the country on Independence Day, the Prime Minister said, "To provide housing for our poor brothers and sisters residing in urban areas of our country we will soon launch the Rajiv Housing Loan Scheme. Under this scheme, people belonging to the economically weaker sections would be given relief on interest for housing loans of less than Rs 5 lakh."

He also said that within the coming two years, all households in the country will benefit from banking services. He also mentioned that the government is contemplating to create a banking system in the country, through which money from government programs, such as pension for senior citizens, scholarships to students and daily wages to laborers, can be directly deposited into the respective person's bank account.

Talking about this system, he said, "This would reduce inconvenience to beneficiaries, make it easy for them to receive payment and increase transparency. For this work, we will take help from the Aadhar scheme under which about 20 crore people have been registered so far."