TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Ever since it came to power in 2014, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government has undertaken various initiatives to enhance the pace of financial inclusion in India. Beginning with the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which aimed to bring the financially excluded into the fold of the formal financial system, the NDA government also introduced various insurance and pension schemes to not only deepen engagement with the financial system, but to also create a social security architecture in the country.
By all accounts, the Jan Dhan Yojana has been a roaring success. Data shows that a staggering 344.3 million accounts have been opened under the scheme as of February 13, 2019. Of these, as many as 203.8 million, or almost 60 per cent of accounts were opened at rural/semi-urban bank branches. The total deposits in all these accounts stood at Rs 91,141 crore. There were concerns that simply opening a bank account wouldn’t constitute meaningful financial inclusion, as the poor would rarely use these accounts. However, recent data submitted to Parliament attests to increased account usage.
The percentage of zero balance accounts has fallen from 58 per cent as on March 25, 2015 to 15 per cent as on January 23, 2019, with even the percentage of inoperative accounts declining from 19.8 per cent as on December 27, 2017 to 16.3 per cent as on December 26, 2018. Further, the average deposit balance in these accounts has increased from Rs 1,065 as on March 25, 2015 to Rs 2,603 as on January 23, 2019.
