Financial Inclusion-Index rises to 64.2 in March 2024

The index captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.

The FI-Index comprises of three broad parameters Access (having a weight of 35 per cent in the index), Usage ( weight 45 per cent), and Quality ( weight 20 per cent) with each of these consisting of various dimensions, which are computed based on a number of indicators. The Index is responsive to ease of access, availability and usage of services, and quality of services, comprising in all 97 indicators.

Improvement in FI-Index is mainly contributed by usage dimension, reflecting deepening of financial inclusion, the RBI said.

The index has been conceptualised as a comprehensive index incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal as well as the pension sector in consultation with government and respective sectoral regulators.

The FI-Index has been constructed without any ‘base year’ and as such it reflects cumulative efforts of all stakeholders over the years towards financial inclusion. The annual FI-Index for the period ending March 2021 was 53.9 as against 43.4 for the period ending March 2017. The FI-Index is published annually in July every year.