Financial Inclusion in India-An Overview

Financial inclusion is a buzzword now and has attracted the global attention in the recent past. In India it is a new concept. Financial inclusion is a process that ensures the ease of access, availability and uses of the formal financial system for all members of an economy. As the banking services are in nature of public good, it is necessary that the entire population without discrimination of any kind should be facilitated with banking and payment services. This could be achieved either by state intervention through law enactment or through initiative of the banking community for admitting people from all layers of society within ambits of banking sector. Financial access can boost the financial condition and standards of life of the poor and disadvantaged. So RBI has been constantly encouraging the banking sector to develop the banking network both through setting up of new branch installation of new ATMs, implementation of EBT and also through BC model by leveraging upon the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In this article an attempt has been made to focus on the RBI and GoI initiatives and policy measures, current status and future prospects of financial inclusion in India on the basis of facts and data provided by various secondary sources.