  The solar and atmospheric data and possibly large value for the effective
neutrino mass in neutrinoless double beta decay experiment together indicate
that all the three neutrinos are nearly degenerate. A verifiable texture for
the neutrino mass matrix is proposed to accommodate these results. This texture
allows almost degenerate neutrino masses two of which are exactly degenerate at
tree level. The standard model radiative corrections lift this degeneracy and
account for the solar deficit. The solar scale is correlated with the effective
neutrino mass $m_{ee}$ probed in neutrinoless double beta decay experiments.
The model can accommodate a large value of O(eV) for $m_{ee}$. Six observables
corresponding to three neutrino masses and three mixing angles are determined
in terms of only three unknown parameters within the proposed texture.
