The faster financial inclusion, especially in the rural areas of India, will be a crucial aspect of the Indian government’s dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy. Indeed, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has been on a long stride towards this ambitious goal. The iconic program of the Government of India that it 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 SubService Areas under the scheme.

On the other hand, to effectively track and enhance financial inclusion in the country the Reserve Bank of India(RBI)in 2021 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. According to the latest value of FI Index (March 2022), which stood at 56.4, with growth witnessed across all the sub-indices. 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 stories of a handful of exceptional leaders from the BFSI segment.