Financial Inclusion in India and its Impact on Development and Poverty

Abstract

This paper aims at analysing the situation of financial inclusion in India. For this purpose, an index is developed which suggests presence of vast inter-state variations in financial inclusion in India.The study further reaches out to seek whether financial inclusion affects growth and standard of living in different states of the country. The results suggest that the level of financial inclusion is very poor in most of the states and further analysis points a direct relation of financial inclusion with growth and standard of living while a negative relation with poverty.