Financial Inclusion in India

The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an ambitious financial inclusion program in 2014 aimed at reaching 75 million people with bank accounts and subsequently government transfers, insurance, pensions and credit. By 2015, 87 million people have opened accounts through the program. Meanwhile, as the program moves to its next phase, several regulatory moves by the Reserve Bank of India in 2014 have paved the way for a big expansion of digital financial inclusion this year – in a country where only .3% of adults use mobile money now.

What are these regulatory moves, and what are they expected to achieve? What additional regulatory changes should India consider in its efforts to advance digital financial inclusion? Is the political will there to follow through on these ambitious goals?

CGAP’s Kabir Kumar, a Senior Financial Sector Specialist in New Delhi, and Daniel Radcliffe, a Senior Program Officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, addressed these questions and more in an online chat on January 28, 2015.

A transcript of this chat follows.