Financial Inclusion: Synchronizing the Existing Financial Institutional Framework

Abstract

Financial inclusion has garnered a lot of interest in the recent past as digital payment systems have become more and more necessary for day-to-day transactions. The important question that arises out of this phenomenon is whether India as a country is ready to take up the challenge when the majority of the citizens still do not have access to basic financial services offered by the government such as banking and post office saving schemes due to lack of financial literacy. In such a situation, the microfinance institutions come into the picture and without their proper regulation most of the times the general public is at the receiving end of their fraudulent practices. It is, therefore, time to integrate and regulate the financial services offered to the needy and bring all the citizens of the country into the fold of financial inclusion by making financial services accessible, risk-free, and properly monitored. The present article aims at proposing a model for integrating the available financial institutions into enabling access to financial services for the backward and rural areas of the country and work in a public-private partnership model.