In India, effective financial inclusion, especially in the rural areas, is going to be a crucial aspect of India's journey to becoming a $5 trillion economy. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has been on a long stride towards increasing financial inclusion in the country. The iconic program of the Government of India that launched right after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath in 2014, PMJDY aims to democratize affordable access to financial services such as bank accounts, remittances, credit, insurance, and pensions.

The program has been a considerable success with 44.82 Crore banking accounts opened so far under the scheme with a cumulative balance of Rs. 160,839.87 crore. Today, 1.26 lakh Bank Mitras deliver branchless banking services in Sub Service Areas under the scheme.

To effectively track and enhance financial inclusion in the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last year had constructed a composite Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) based on multiple parameters that will reflect the broadening and deepening of financial inclusion in the country. The annual FI-Index for the period ending March 2021 is 53.9 as against 43.4 for the period ending March 2017.

Needless to say, we are still miles away from where we want to be.It takes a collaborative approach to improve the FI-Index, wherein the private sector banks and NBFCs will have to play an instrumental role. In this edition, we have researched and curated a meticulous bunch of stories from the BFSI segment.

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