It did look very serious and ambitious when, in 2011, the UPA government launched the ‘Swabhimaan’ campaign to
bring millions of unbanked people within the fold of formal banking. The entire financial institutional architecture
was leveraged, banks were asked to open new ultra small branches in every village with more than 2,000 population,
appoint banking correspondents, and open no-frills savings bank accounts. Once this was done, several entitlements
through direct benefit transfers were expected to flow into these accounts, and it was expected that a large population of
unbanked people would come into the mainstream financial system. Given the size, scale, and scope of the programme,
it did become important for ACCESS to expand the ambit of its attention to the larger financial inclusion ecosystem
than just look at the two tracks of SHG and MFI lending that were delivering results, albeit slow in outreach.
Appropriately, from 2013, both
Microfinance India State of the Sector Report
and the Microfinance India Summit did
begin to track the progress of financial inclusion in India. However, from 2014, while the Microfinance India Summit
has been restyled as ‘Inclusive Finance India Summit’,
State of the Sector Report
too is now positioned as
Inclusive
Finance India Report
. The next five-year efforts will be to assess and analyse the gains of financial inclusion in India and
track true and tangible outcomes.
Given that 2.5 billion people globally are outside the fold of formal banking, in October 2013, the World Bank
Group put forward a vision for achieving universal financial access by 2020. More than 50 countries have now made
commitments to financial inclusion targets. The Global Financial Inclusion Index (Global Findex) tracks financial
inclusion in 148 countries. According to Findex, in India, only 35 per cent adults have bank accounts, and only about
8 per cent get a loan from FFIs. This presents a huge challenge if we were to pursue true financial inclusion. While
the UPA government’s ‘Swabhimaan’ campaign at the policy level did reflect resolve and seriousness, with all banks
preparing financial inclusion plans and the Reserve Bank periodically reviewing it, the outcome was largely millions of
no-frills accounts being opened, but most lying dormant. With change in government, initially it was not sure whether
financial inclusion would continue to be a priority. However, fortunately, among the first key policy announcements
by the NDA government was to announce its commitment to financial inclusion, of course with a new label—Pradhan
Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). Under the new scheme, at least two bank accounts will be opened for every
household, out of which one should be in the name of a female member. So, over 150 million new accounts will
be opened under the campaign by 26 January 2015. As per a recent newspaper report, within the two months since
Foreword
