An Outlook of Financial Inclusion with Mediating Effect of Direct Benefit Transfer in LPG Subsidy towards Actual Usage of Banking Technology

Abstract

Objectives: RBI has defined financial inclusion as the process of facilitating financial services to the people from the weaker sections in the society at an affordable cost. This study empirically investigates the role of Information and Communication Technology to achieve financial inclusion in the district of Tirupur. This study took technology based financial inclusion in banking sector such as mobile banking, internet banking and Automated Teller Machine to know its frequency of usage among rural people in the district of Tirupur. Further study was conducted to identify the factors affecting the access and reasons for hesitation towards access. The study also identified the mediating effect of Direct Benefit Transfer in LPG Subsidy towards Actual Usage of Banking Technology Methods: The study has adopted Technological Acceptance Model (TAM) for building the conceptual model. Primary Data for the study has been collected from the rural villages of Tirupur District. The data has been analyzed through SPSS 21 and the proposed model has been empirically tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through AMOS 21. Findings: From this study it is found that Automated Teller Machine is frequently used by 78.2% of the rural respondents. Direct Benefit Transfer in LPG Subsidy, to the rural people was found to be partially mediating the actual usage of banking technology by rural people. Through the Structural Equation Modeling it was found that there exists a cause and effect relationship between the study variables. Novelty: Prior studies have focused on only banking technological acceptance among the customers. The present study has measured the actual usage of banking technology and also studied the effect of Direct Benefit Transfer in LPG Subsidy on it. This is the major contribution to the existing literature in the field of financial inclusion.