India has achieved financial inclusion targets in just 6 years: World Bank`s G20 document
Underlining India's growth, a G20 document prepared by the World Bank has stated that India has achieved financial inclusion targets in just 6 years which would otherwise have taken at least 47 long years. The document highlights the groundbreaking measures taken by Central Government and the pivotal role of government policy and regulation in shaping the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) landscape.
The document categorically noted that while DPIs’ role in this leapfrogging is undoubtable, other ecosystem variables and policies that build on the availability of DPIs were critical. These included interventions to create a more enabling legal and regulatory framework, national policies to expand account ownership, and leveraging Aadhaar for identity verification.
Besides, it said that the Jan Dhan Plus programme encourages low-income women to save, resulting in over 12 million women customers (as of April 2023) and a 50% increase in average balances in just five months, as against the entire portfolio in the same time period. It is estimated that by engaging 100 million low-income women in savings activities, public sector banks in India can attract approximately Rs 25,000 crore ($3.1 billion) in deposits.
