DIGITAL FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN INDIA — A REFERENCE TO THE DEMAND SIDE

Reserve Bank of India has been working towards the goal of financial inclusion for almost two decades. Several policy initiatives have been implemented to provide formal financial services to the unbanked people of India both by the Government of India and Reserve Bank of India. However, most of these measures primarily focus on the supply side of the problem. For that reason, even if some successes have been witnessed, there remains a huge mass of Indian adults still excluded from formal financial system. Recently, the direction has been shifted to “digital financial inclusion” as it has been realized that remarkable advancement in technology and internet penetration can be leveraged upon to achieve the goal of financial inclusion in India. In this paper, the notion of “digital financial inclusion”, its scope and challenges have been analysed. The policy measures taken in India towards the objective of digital financial inclusion have also been briefly discussed. The agenda of digital financial inclusion has been
discussed with a special reference of the the demand side. Hence, it is suggested that, in the coming years, to accelerate financial inclusion in India through digital mode, policy makers should emphasize on the demand side factors like spreading digital financial literacy and enhancement of customer protection from cyber threats during
online financial transactions.

印度储备银行（Reserve Bank of India）近二十年来始终以推进金融普惠为核心目标。印度政府与印度储备银行先后推出多项政策举措，旨在为印度无正规银行服务的人群提供正规金融服务。然而，此类政策大多聚焦于问题的供给端，即便已取得部分成效，仍有大量印度成年人未能被纳入正规金融体系。近来，随着技术进步与互联网普及率的显著提升，学界与政策界意识到可依托数字手段助力印度实现金融普惠目标，因此政策方向已转向“数字金融普惠（digital financial inclusion）”。本文首先剖析了该概念的内涵、覆盖范畴与现实挑战，随后简要梳理了印度为推进数字金融普惠所采取的各项政策措施。此外，本文特别结合需求侧视角，对数字金融普惠的相关议题展开了探讨。基于上述分析，本文建议：未来若要通过数字化路径加速印度金融普惠进程，政策制定者应重点关注需求侧关键因素，包括普及数字金融素养，以及强化在线金融交易场景下用户免受网络威胁的权益保障。