Speeding Financial Inclusion

Increasing access to finance for India’s rural poor presents a formidable developmental challenge in a country as vast and varied as India, and this study seeks to collate primary research based on grassroots experiences from several project sites and field visits. It presents key interventions and intermediations to speed up the process of financial inclusion, and thereby poverty alleviation. Additionally, the book also lists various success stories and interventions led by large public sector banks; public sector insurance companies and a large business correspondent. Establishing a clear link between financial access, financial exclusion, financial inclusion, and poverty alleviation, the book measures the performance of various credit programs, including microfinance, and evaluates their success and impact. Arguing that in order for the current measures being undertaken for financial inclusion to bear expected fruits, the study explains how certain impediments have to be removed to make it workable and viable.