Road to Prosperity - How Hero Fincorp Is Driving Financial Inclusion

It is impossible to talk about the India growth story without talking about financial inclusion. Its almost universally agreed that without financial inclusion comprehensive growth cannot be reached, especially for a country which has a billion population and a stark divide between the organized and unorganized sector.

Financial inclusion means the delivery of banking services at an affordable cost to a large part of the population, especially the low-income group. An efficient society is often characterized by unlimited access to public goods and services. Hence the ready availability of banking services, without any discrimination, for the population has already been included as one of the key objectives of the government.

And yet, despite making tremendous progess in banking in the last few years and achieving significant improvements in areas of financial viability, profitability and competitiveness, our country is still grappling with bringing the underserved and underprivileged into the fold of basic banking services. 

This is essentially because of deep seated socio-economic issues & mindsets & the lack of reach of our major financial instititions. Though the government has been pushing various steps to promote financial inclusion, we have lacked financial institutions which can penetrate into the fabric of every Indian village.

The recent episode with demonetization shows just how divided the organized and unorganized sectors are in India and how deep financial illiteracy runs in our country. The recent move towards a cashless economy will need more than just awareness and additional banking hours.

The demonetization move does not leave much for individuals who remain excluded from the organized sector. Earlier in 2014, the Indian Government launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana with an aim to provide a bank account for every household. Nevertheless, this scheme did not reach the nooks and corners of rural India.