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）近二十年来始终致力于推进普惠金融（financial inclusion）目标。印度政府与印度储备银行已推出多项政策举措，旨在为印度无银行账户群体提供正规金融服务。然而，此类措施大多聚焦于问题的供给侧，即便已取得一定成效，仍有海量印度成年人被排除在正规金融体系之外。近年来，随着各界意识到可依托技术与互联网普及率的显著进步来实现印度普惠金融目标，政策方向已转向“数字普惠金融（digital financial inclusion）”。本论文分析了“数字普惠金融”的概念、范畴与挑战，同时简要探讨了印度为实现该目标所采取的政策举措，并特别结合需求侧视角展开相关讨论。据此建议，未来若要通过数字化路径加快印度普惠金融进程，政策制定者应重点关注需求侧因素，例如普及数字金融素养，以及强化用户在在线金融交易中免受网络威胁的权益保护。