New Delhi, The NDA Government’s achievement in financial inclusion have in a way influence the aspirations of low-income population, leading to improve lives in rural areas, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.
Mr Jaitley said the government in just four years has achieved remarkable results as it has opened numerous bank accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojna, providing funds to Start-Ups and covered the rural areas.
“Within a short span of time, what started of as a financial inclusion experiment, we have been able to achieve remarkable results in banking the unbanked, securing the unsecured, funding the unfunded and covering the uncovered rural areas. Our achievements in financial inclusion have in a way influenced the aspirations of the low-income population. This has led to improving the rural sanitation, providing better quality of life to poorer population in the villages,” the Minister added.
The Finance Minister said the subject of digital financial inclusion is a topic of extreme importance to a country like India where they have adopted a higher growth rate to propel development.
He was speaking at the 25th World Congress of Savings and Retail Banks organised here.
NABARD chairman Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala said the financial inclusion model adopted by India has contributed to inclusive growth and laying down a huge digital infrastructure which can be used by state governments for providing various benefits to the poorer population.
He said the NABARD has also enabled outreach to more than 100 million rural women through partnerships with over 60,000 bank branches and over 5,000 civil society organisations. Savings plays a very critical role in all the financial inclusion approaches promoted by NABARD.
Mr Bhanwala said NABARD is also in the process of digitisation of self-help groups, which contributes to intensification of credit, convergence of various government benefit schemes and providing better business opportunities for banks with over 100 million members of SHGs.
Speaking on the occasion, outgoing WSBI President Heinrich Haasis provided a summary of achievements made during his six-year association presidency, including inroads made toward a WSBI pledge to provide “an account for everybody”, which was outlined in a 2012 WSBI declaration in Marrakesh.
“Since our World Bank Universal Financial Access 2020 commitment made in 2015, WSBI members have added 340 million accounts for 234 million people into the formal financial system thanks to their efforts,” he added.
Department of Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar was also present on the occasion.