India gets 'Financial Inclusion Index'

India has got a composite 'Financial Inclusion Index' (FI- Index) to capture the extent of financial inclusion across the country.

Accordingly, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constructed a composite FI-Index, which was announced in the 'Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies' in the first 'Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement' for FY22. On Tuesday, RBI said the FI-Index has been constructed without any 'base year' and as such it reflects cumulative efforts of all stakeholders over the years towards financial inclusion.

"The annual FI-Index for the period ending March 2021 is 53.9 as against 43.4 for the period ending March 2017. The FI-Index will be published annually in July every year," RBI said in a statement.

As per the statement, the index has been conceptualised as a comprehensive index incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal as well as the pension sector in consultation with Government and respective sectoral regulators.

"The index captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion. The FI-Index comprises of three broad parameters viz., 'Access (35 per cent), Usage (45 per cent) and Quality (20 per cent)' with each of these consisting of various dimensions, which are computed based on a number of indicators."