BRICS NATIONS AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE BRICS NATIONS USING VARIOUS FINANICAL INCLUSION INDICATORS

Abstract

Financial inclusion means providing access to financial services at affordable cost to all individuals and businesses especially to the vulnerable and weaker income groups. This paper aims to examine the concept of financial inclusion and its relevance with respect to the world?s emerging economies Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). The BRICS nations have been the growth drivers of the world economy and higher financial inclusion means a better level of socio-economic development. Various financial inclusion indicators from The Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) have been used to compare data of these countries. With the help of this paper, an attempt has been made to analyse the state of financial inclusion and digital financial services amongst BRICS nations. Also, the BRICS nations have been compared in terms of income as well as gender disparity for various financial inclusion indicators.