By – Rahul Kumar, Senior Journalist, and Media Columnist
New Delhi: On 10th Aug 2018, a report on ‘Effects of Consumer Finance on Financial Inclusion in India’ released by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations(ICRIER), New Delhi, India.
The survey covered 844 respondents across five cities: Bangalore, Bhopal, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai by the ICRIER. The objective of the survey was to gauge the importance of consumer finance in financial inclusion.
The financial inclusion in India was a myth in the past few years but positive steps taken by the government of India through popular schemes such as PMJDY, Aadhar etc. These positive steps changed the mindset of the people in India. Commercial banks and Micro Finance institutions (MFIs), Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) have been complementing the activities of banks over the past few decades.
In the concluding remarks of the report, ‘personal loans have grown at twice the rate of growth in personal disposable income, leading to a steady rise in household indebtedness’. There is a need to provide financial literacy to the people of India to avail banking services for the growth of the Indian economy. Financial empowerment of women in India is still a challenge which needs to be addressed.
Dr. Rajat Kathuria, Director and Chief Executive at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) welcomed the participants and spoke about the report on financial inclusion in India. The report was discussed by the expert panelists from the field followed by Q/A.
