Nearly half of Indians financially excluded

NEW DELHI: Theme India may be rocking Wall Street and the City of London even as we enter the 60th year of Independence. But back home, the Indian government is waking up to the fact that over 40% of Indians don’t even have bank accounts. In fact, financial inclusion (FI) could be the next buzz word as the government is working on its plans for achieving inclusive growth. The unbanked population, it has been found, mostly hail from the North-East and eastern regions. The statistics are startling. According to the saving bank accounts data available with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and assuming that one person has only one account, a mere 59% of adult population in the country have accounts in a bank. The actual figure could be much less as many individuals have multiple bank accounts. In rural areas, the coverage is as low as 39%.

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