FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN INDIA

The pursuit of building accessibility of financial services at affordable costs to all individuals irrespective of their net worth and size is the basis of the concept of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion strives to address challenges that exclude people from participating in the financial sector. Financial inclusion is a fundamental cornerstone of economic and social development. The concern of GOI has been on the overall inclusion of various sectors towards development. Various initiatives like rural employment guarantee scheme, Bharat Nirman, Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan and PMJDY are a move to propel the target of financial inclusion. The paper is an attempt to provide an understanding of the concept, comparison of financial inclusion and exclusion and thereby appraise the achievement of this goal in India using two indicators; ATMs and Commercial bank branches. The trends suggests that financial inclusion has increased over the study period (2007-2015), yet it leaves scope for inclusion of other indicators for the same. The focus is on economic & social inclusion in general through financial inclusion in particular so as to term the current economic growth as inclusive growth.