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WorldOctober 1 2014

Financial inclusion mission targets India's unbanked

The Indian government is looking to break the cycle of poverty in the country's rural and urban areas by ensuring every household has a bank account. Rekha Gupta Menon reports on how banks are working to bring the Indian unbanked into the formal banking network.
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India has embarked on an ambitious financial inclusion initiative that aims to bring 75 million unbanked Indian households into the formal banking network. Driven by the central government, the objective of the scheme is to open at least one bank account per household by next January, less than six months from the date of launch.

In a country where most government programmes take months, if not years, to bear fruit, this scheme has gotten off to a remarkably swift start with the new government pulling out all stops to ensure its smooth implementation. The national mission of financial inclusion, known as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), was first mentioned in the maiden budget speech of finance minister Arun Jaitley in July and then formally launched to much fanfare on August 28.

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