In terms of design and approach the ‘bank-led’ financial
inclusion drive started around the mid-2000s has been
significantly different from the earlier initiatives. The
SHG bank-linkage programme generated similar hype
in the 1990s, but it largely concerned women and their
groups. Since the objective of the programme was to help
the poor collectively build their savings, which could
then be leveraged for bank credit, individual banking
engagement was not considered a priority. Even when the
programme expanded its reach to several regions, only a
minuscule proportion of ordinary women members got
the opportunity to directly deal with commercial banks
or learn about commercial banking. The Swabhiman
scheme launched in 2011 shifted the focus to households
and individuals and promised to create a branchless
system of financial services provision at the village level
in the form of business correspondents. It also promised
to spare them from exploitative middlemen by directly
crediting benefits, payments and subsidies to their bank
accounts. It showed a way to the large population of
workers living in cities and towns far away from their
homes and villages to earn a living and their dependents
back home to send and receive money safely and quickly.
For the innovative and entrepreneurial minds, financial
inclusion offered the best opportunity to innovate
around viable business models that combine the interests
of technology and society.
Jan-Dhan Yojana, the third phase in financial inclu-
sion marks ‘the big push’ strategy from the state, and
is a continuation of what the earlier regime started off
with. The several features added in the new dispensation
(extending to urban areas, interoperability to RuPay cards
and AEPS, simplified or e-KYC, emphasis on financial
literacy, etc.) apparently have evolved from the learnings
of the earlier phase. It also indicates the Indian reality
that governments cannot afford to leave the problem
of poverty and exclusion to be resolved by the market
forces alone.
The analysis in the earlier chapters indicate that the
financial inclusion project of India involves several initia-
tives and institutions. Technology—both social and phys-
ical—has undoubtedly been the key to operationalizing
the financial inclusion machinery developed over these
years. Policies too have evolved alongside the maturing
of these technologies. The governments at the centre and
states have taken keen interest in promoting financial in-
clusion as an agenda for inclusive development. However,
practices and processes appear to differ across institutions
and regions. Those banks with more agile systems the
transmission of financial inclusion philosophy happened
6
Looking Ahead
