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.