IMPLEMENTATION OF JAN DHAN YOJANA – CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

The intent of this study is to present a clear picture about how the PMJDY is being implemented in Andhra Pradesh and north coastal Andhra in particular so as to find out the bottlenecks the program comes to face at the field level. While doing so the potential threats to the implementation of PMJDY alongside the characteristics of population in north coastal Andhra Pradesh are to be studied in detail. Indeed PMJDY is a program scrupulously designed to help the poor and the backward get their share from government without intervention of any middlemen aimed at the financial inclusion of people at the lowest rung. According to Reserve bank of India, Financial inclusion is the process of ensuring access to financial services and timely and adequate credit availability to the vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income group at affordable cost. Planning commission (2009) further explain it as universal access to a wide range of financial services at a reasonable cost. C Rangarajan (2009) defined financial exclusion as restricted access to financial services to certain segment of economy which includes individuals or family belonging to low income group who cannot access basic banking like bank accounts, credit.