Financial Growth in India: Whither Financial Inclusion?

Ever since the enactment of the Cooperative and Regional Rural Banks Acts and nationalisation of scheduled commercial banks, financial inclusion measures in India have led to physical expansion in the country. Unfortunately, the expansion has not brought about the necessary change in the backward and rural areas as financial services are yet to reach a vast majority of the population. The financial exclusion is characterised by limited service providers, limited goals and limited lending, besides a huge area of operation and missing linkages between financial institutions and local organisations. Demand-side factors have also contributed to the present dimension of financial exclusion, the result of which is that over two-thirds of the under-served segments resort to high-cost financial services from informal sources, which are present in every nook and corner. This paper considers a number of alternative initiatives to increase access to institutional financial services for the under-served population.