REALISING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRIGGERS OF FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN INDIA

Financial inclusion has moved up the global reform agenda and become a topic of great interest for policy makers, regulators, researchers, market practitioners and other stakeholders. It is a key enabler of economic and social development in developing countries like India. The process of financial inclusion is a function of number of variables. It is necessary to identify the determinants of financial inclusion so that appropriate policy measures can be undertaken to achieve the larger aim of financial inclusion. This paper attempts to examine the association between the extent of financial inclusion and socio-economic variables, using a panel data set for Indian states over the time period 2001-2012. For this analysis, five socio-economic variables viz. income, employment, literacy, urbanisation and caste have been considered. The findings indicate that all the variables are significant in explaining the extent of financial inclusion. This paper, therefore, calls for policy making bodies to put in place a financial inclusion framework in order to improve the level of financial inclusion.普惠金融(Financial Inclusion)已跻身全球改革议程的重要议题，受到政策制定者、监管机构、研究者、市场从业者及其他利益相关方的广泛关注。普惠金融是印度等发展中国家经济与社会发展的关键赋能手段，其推进进程受诸多变量影响。明确普惠金融的影响决定因素，方能制定恰当的政策举措以实现其整体发展目标。本文以2001-2012年印度各邦的面板数据集为样本，旨在探究普惠金融覆盖程度与社会经济变量之间的关联关系。本次分析选取了五项社会经济变量，即收入水平、就业状况、识字率、城市化水平与种姓结构。研究结果显示，上述所有变量均能显著解释普惠金融的覆盖程度。因此，本文呼吁政策制定机构构建完善的普惠金融框架，以提升整体普惠金融发展水平。