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Branchless Banking & Financial Inclusion

Anuj Kumar and Himanshu Gupta
Friday, July 31, 2009
Anuj Kumar and Himanshu Gupta
1 Financial Inclusion and the Role of IT
The Scenario – Did you know:

Financial inclusion has been a focus of attention in recent times. However, the facts above reveal the real and somewhat uncomfortable picture. The increase in the number of branches has not answered the needs of the farmers; and reaching the unbanked population to enable inclusive growth is a serious problem today. Branchless banking could be the big step towards providing easy financial access to the poor people and achieving financial inclusion.

The Initiatives
It has been over two decades since microfinance initiatives were introduced in India, but financial inclusion still remains a distant dream. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has shown sincere interest in this matter and the following initiatives have been taken:

The Target
Committee reports submitted to the Indian government call for access to financial services, including credit, to be raised to 50 percent by 2012 and 100 percent by 2015.


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Reader's comments(3)
1:Very good perspective. However, BC model demand a lot of socialization both the the BC operation level as well as consumer end. I think the way, banks have been given a run for their money by MCFs especially in rural sector ( 61% of that remains unbanked according to the experts), banks have no choice but to come off with BC models.
Posted by: Manohar Ganshani - 06th Aug 2009
2:Excellent article.....expect more of these on similar lines.........
Posted by: NITIN DHAWAN - 04th Aug 2009
3:Great Going Man !!!
Nice Article.....
Posted by: arun singh - 04th Aug 2009
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