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As many as 587 out of a total 638 districts in India and 34 out of 35 States and Union Territories saw improvement in financial inclusion during 2012-13.
Analysing the “latest” RBI data Crisil on Monday announced the latest scores in its index – Inclusix – for measuring financial inclusion.
Roopa Kudva, Managing Director & CEO, Crisil, said: “India’s overall Crisil Inclusix score has risen 2.7 in fiscal 2012 – the highest annual increase since 2009. As many as 587 out of a total 638 districts in India and 34 out of 35 states and Union territories improved their scores, reflecting a broad-based improvement in financial inclusion.”
Nevertheless, at 42.8 on a scale of 100, the all-India Inclusix score reflects under-penetration of formal banking in the country. Just one in two Indians have a savings account and one in seven has access to bank credit.
There are wide disparities in access to financial services, too. While India’s six largest cities have 10 per cent of India’s bank branches, the bottom 50 districts have merely 2 per cent of the bank branches.
There has been a significant rise in new savings accounts across the five regions – north, south, east, west and north-east. Overall, 79 million new savings accounts were opened in fiscal 2012, 12.6 per cent more than in fiscal 2011.
Also, agricultural credit accounts have grown at 11.1 per cent, which is the most since fiscal 2009.
The number of bank branches in the bottom 100 districts has increased by six per cent, faster than the all-India growth of 5.6 per cent.
New deposit accounts in three regions – north, south and east. This contributed 42 per cent to the rise in Crisil Inclusix.
The north, by adding 2.4 million new credit accounts, contributed 11 per cent to the index’s increase.
Almost 30 per cent of the 5,125 new bank branches were added in the South, which contributed 9 per cent to the increase.
Credit penetration in the top 50 districts jumped significantly as small-borrower accounts surged.
jayanta.mallick@thehindu.co.in
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