Financial inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to sections of disadvantaged and low-income segments of society, in contrast to financial exclusion where those services are not available or affordable.
Government of India has launched an innovative scheme of Jan Dhan Yojna for Financial Inclusion to provide the financial services to millions out of the regulated banking sector.
Various program’s for financial inclusion are:-
- Swabhimaan Scheme:under the Swabhimaan campaign, the Banks were advised to provide appropriate banking facilities to habitations having a population in excess of 2000 (as per 2001 census) by March 2012.
- Extention of the banking networkin unbanked areas,
- Expansion of Business Correspondent Agent (BCA)Network
- Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) and Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL)
- RuPay, a new card payment scheme has been conceived by NPCI to offer a domestic, open-loop, multilateral card payment system which will allow all Indian banks and financial Institutions in India to participate in electronic payments.
- Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)was formally launched on 28th August, 2014. The Yojana envisages universal access to banking facilities with at least one basic banking account for every household, financial literacy, access to credit, insurance and pension. The beneficiaries would get a RuPay Debit Card having inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs.1.00 lakh. In addition there is a life insurance cover of Rs.30000/- to those people who opened their bank accounts for the first time between 15.08.2014 to 26.01.2015 and meet other eligibility conditions of the Yojana.