Financial Inclusion effort recognised, says Financial Services Secretary Kumar

The finance ministry on Friday said that its efforts towards financial inclusion has yielded results and got acknowledgement from multilateral institutions such as World Bank.

Financial services secretary Rajiv Kumar in a tweet said that that the Global Findex Report released by World Bank has recognised India’s financial inclusion efforts. The World Bank had released the report on Thursday.

“@WorldBank #GlobalFindexReport recognises India’s Financial Inclusion efforts. Of the 51.4 Crore bank accounts opened from 2014-17 globally, a whopping 55% from #India. Banking the unbanked…” he tweeted.


The World Bank report has cited the success of the Jan Dhan Yojana, Modi’s government initiative aimed at bringing the masses within the formal banking system.

The total number of Jan Dhan account holders has risen to 31.44 crore in March, 2018, up from 28.17 crore a year earlier, according to government data.

Kumar also said that the report acknowledges impact of government policy in reducing gaps in bank account ownership between rich and poor to 5% in 2017, down from 15% in 2014.

The report also highlights sharp fall in gender gap from 20% in 2014 to 6% in 2017 in bank accounts due to government efforts.

Four-fifths of Indian adults have opened bank accounts by 2017, compared with just 53% in 2014, when the incumbent government came to power, show data from the Global Findex Report that highlighted New Delhi’s contribution to global growth in financial inclusion.

Findex, launched with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, tracks data on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk.

The report also notes that a sizable 36% of account owners in India are already using their accounts to make or receive digital payments. The report states that the total number of current and savings accounts in banks has risen to 157.1 crore in March, 2017, compared with 122.3 crore two years earlier.