Financial Inclusion in India – A Look

Reserve Bank of India’s vision for 2020 is to open nearly 600 million new customers’ accounts. The government should encourage the banks to adopt financial inclusion by means of financial assistance, financial literacy, advertisement, awareness program, etc. to achieve the aim of 11th plan of Inclusive Growth. The availability of quality financial services in rural areas is extremely important for the growth of the economy as this will enable the large number of rural households to fund the growth of their livelihoods. The growth of the economy is dependent on the growth of the rural market in the country. Therefore greater financial inclusion in these segments is imperative. The main objective of this study is to review various papers on the how financial inclusion serves as a means of inclusive growth and to study the initiatives taken by Government and Reserve Bank of India for strengthening financial inclusion in the country. The study is based on secondary data collection. Financial inclusion plays a major role in inclusive growth of the country. It is estimated that globally over 2.5 billion people are excluded from access to financial services of which one third is in India. The origins of the current approach to financial inclusion can be traced to the United Nations initiatives, which broadly described the main goals of inclusive finance as access to a range of financial services including savings, credit, insurance, remittance and other banking /payment services to all ‘bankable’ households and enterprises at a reasonable cost. In India, financial inclusion first featured in 2005, when it was introduced by Dr. K.C. Chakrabarty, the Chairman of Indian Bank. Mangalam Village becomes the first village in India where all households were provided banking facilities.