Financial Inclusion: An Analysis of Schedule Commercial Banks in India

Abstract

With the progress of the Indian economy, especially when the economy focuses on to achieve sustainable developments, there must be an attempt to include maximum number of participants from all the sections of the society. But lack of awareness and financial literacy among the rural population of the country is hiding the growth of the economy as a majority of the population does not have access to formal credit. financial inclusion as the process of ensuring access to appropriate financial products and services needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups at an affordable cost in a fair and transparent manner by mainstream institutional players This paper analyses the financial inclusion developments of schedule commercial banks in 36 (including union territories) Indian states in both rural and urban from the year 2015 to 2017. The paper concludes that, after 60 years of independence, a large section of Indian population still remains unbanked. This malaise has led generation of financial instability and pauperism among the lower income group who do not have access to financial products and services. Out of 36 states, including Manipur, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh and Madhya Pradesh have high growth rate of banking penetration, where as Tripura, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Daman and Diu have low growth rate of banking penetration. The credit deposit ratio growth rate is highest in some states includes-West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh. However, in the recent years the government and Reserve Bank of India has been pushing the concept and idea of financial inclusion.