Financial Inclusion in India:Status, Reforms and Roadmap

Financial inclusion has got momentum in the recent past in India. In order to promote the accessibility and outreach of banking and financial services to the masses, banking sector reforms have been introduced by RBI besides implementing regulatory framework for financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is closely related with th inclusive growth and development as envisaged in 11 Five Year Plan. There has been remarkable progress in the direction of financial inclusion in India however; sharp variations have emerged in the accessibility and outreach of financial and banking services across the states and regions of India. A large chunk of population is still out of the gamut of financial and banking services in India and therefore there are daunting challenges to promote financial inclusion and provide banking and financial services to the unbanked population and in backward areas. Against this view point, present paper purports to examine the current status of financial inclusion and suggesting roadmap for augmenting the accessibility and outreach of banking and financial services to the masses.