RBI formulates National Strategy for Financial Inclusion for the period 2019-2024

On January 10, 2020 the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the aegis of Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee (FIAC) has set up a 5-year plan of formulation of National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) for the period 2019-2024. This has been done keeping in view the global trend of financial inclusion which acts as a key driver of economic growth.National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2019-2024:

i.NSFI approval:  The national strategy plan, i.e., NSFI was finalised and approved by Financial Stability Development Council (FSDC) and the final documents were released by RBI deputy director Mahesh Kumar Jain at the high level meeting on Financial Inclusion for the North East region at Agartala, Tripura.

ii.NSFI recommendation: The key recommendations of NSFI are as follows:

• Banking outlets to be increased: Increasing outreach of banking outlets to provide financial inclusion to every village within a 5 kilometre radius/ 500 households in hilly areas by March 2020.
• Digital architecture: Moving to digital and consent based architecture for customer by March 2024.Access to financials service providers through mobile device by March 2024.
• Digital payments: Moving to a less cash society by enhancing digital payments by March 2022.

iii.Current financial inclusion programme: Currently the govt. promotes financial inclusion through Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) which is a financial inclusion scheme applicable to all people aged from 10-65 years.

• PMJDY Aim: The aim of this scheme is to provide affordable access to financial services such as bank accounts, remittances, credit, insurance and pension

iv.7 of the United Nations(UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of 2030 view financial inclusion as a key enabler for achieving sustainable development worldwide.

Financial Stability Development Council:

i.It is an apex body constituted by govt. of India on the recommendations of the committee headed by Raghuram Rajan (former RBI governor) in 2008.

ii.The chairperson of this council is the Union Minister of Finance(MoF) of India Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman.

About Reserve Bank of India(RBI):
Headquarters- Mumbai, Maharashtra
Formation- 1 April 1935
Governor- Shaktikanta Das
Deputy Governors- 4 (Bibhu Prasad Kanungo, N S Vishwanathan, Mahesh Kumar Jain, 1 is yet to be appointed)