Effectiveness of Financial Inclusion and Rural Upliftment: Empirical Evidence from Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Financial inclusion is the process of confirming access to financial services and adequate credit at timely, wherever required by vulnerable groups such as low income groups and weaker sections at a reasonable cost. Financial inclusion programme primarily emphasizes on offering secured financial solutions to the underprivileged segments of India without any signs of inequality and unbiased treatment. The main objective of the study is to examine the effectiveness of financial inclusion and rural upliftment with empirical evidence from Tamil Nadu. This research study is descriptive in nature, and target audiences are residing in Tamil Nadu region. Secondly, the sample size of this study represents 480 citizens, and the sampling method adopted is non-probability sampling using judgmental sampling method which is used for the target population. The Likert five-point rating scale questions are used for collecting the data through structured questionnaire. The findings revealed that the intensity of financial inclusion has improved over the years across different districts of Tamil Nadu but majority of districts still fall under the medium inclusion in rural area category. In this research study, it is suggested that financial inclusion generates economic progress and prosperity that drive activities among standard of living increasing across all segments of the society. This result shows that financial inclusion programme is potential and capable to transform the face of the state Tamil Nadu and it travels continuously towards upliftment of each and every individual without a doubt. The future research may consider more dimensions of financial inclusion like perception, engagement, empowerment of citizens and comparative study on different financial inclusion schemes at different regions, as this study is restricted to only (rural upliftment) financial inclusion.