The Union Government on Friday launched two schemes related to the Reserve Bank of India — the RBI Retail Direct Scheme and the Reserve Bank Integrated Ombudsman Scheme. Flagged as 'major structural reforms', these initiatives are aimed at incentivizing investment in government securities and simplifying the grievance redressal mechanism for the general public respectively. The government has tagged the two schemes as 'customer-centric' which may not be completely wrong. Coming first to the RBI Retail Direct Scheme, it allows for "small investors in the country to have a safe medium of investment in government securities". RBI governor Shaktikanta Das has highlighted the potential role of the scheme in 'deepening the financial inclusion' within the country. The plan has fructified months after the RBI director raised a proposal in February this year to allow direct retail participation in government securities (GILTs or G-Secs). G-Secs are basically a form of borrowing for the government. In case of fiscal deficit within the economy, the government borrows from several quarters to finance the deficit. Until now, only aggregators such as banks, mutual funds, large financial institutions etc., were allowed to hold these bonds. The newly announced schemes will extend it to retail customers as well. Apart from providing the intended benefit to the customers, the new scheme will help the government to sail through one of the toughest times as the nation recovers from the ravages of the pandemic. Boosting retail participation in government securities is something that the government has been eying for long. Even in the past, there have been several attempts — including non-competitive bidding in primary auctions, permitting stock exchanges to route primary purchases and allowing a specific retail segment in the secondary market — were tried by the government. There could be no doubt that investing in government securities is considered a safe option. But is safety the only parameter an investor looks for while investing? Certainly not. Most of the time the prospects of higher returns attract the investors. Opening up the securities market for customers by the government is a significant initiative — both for the government and the public — but that is far from enough. The real issue at hand for the government will be to make these investment options more lucrative, which may be a time-taking exercise, but there hardly is any alternative to that. Apart from the low prospects of benefit, there is a list of involved risks — even for aggregate bondholders — often flagged by market experts. As these government securities are guaranteed by the Reserve Bank of India, the chances of default are abysmally low. But default is not the only risk faced by the investors. Market and liquidity risks form a major chunk of the problem. Parallel to the RBI Retail Direct Scheme, the government should also have come out with a potential risk management plan to consolidate the confidence of retail investors. The second scheme — Reserve Bank Integrated Ombudsman Scheme — is indeed a major transformative change that could empower the customers in a significant manner. Based on the principle of 'One Nation-One Ombudsman', the scheme basically integrates the three existing systems of public grievance redressal in the sector — Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS), 1995, the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (OS-NBFC), 2018 and the Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions (OSDT), 2019 — into a single lot. The role of an ombudsman is to ensure accountability of public institutions before the public. This role becomes extremely critical when it comes to something as important as the finance sector. Nothing could be more heartening than to see an emboldened public with a greater degree of control over the institutions that are meant to serve them. Such changes are due across all departments and sectors. Technological advancements have a great potential to simplify the operational mechanisms of various institutions. The institutions must leverage these technologies to evolve themselves with changing times and remain meaningful. For the Reserve Bank Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, it can be hoped that the government, through an effective implementation plan, succeeds in its aim of ensuring a single-point of reference for the customers to file their complaints, submit documents, track the status of their complaints and provide feedback. At the same time, a lot more is required to be done to make RBI Retail Direct Scheme a success.