The study analyses India's performance in achieving financial inclusion and examines the relationship between financial inclusion and human development in India, over the period 2001-2019, constructing a financial inclusion index and with the help of the data of human development index values from secondary sources. The study considers banking activities under the dimensions of availability, access and usage, and employs the method of 'Max-Min procedure to convert indicators into indices' while developing financial inclusion index. The study finds a wide variation in the level of financial inclusion across regions in India. The estimation results of time series analysis show that financial inclusion and human development move parallel to each other and both have influence on one another. The study suggests that government policies should be more based on human development, rather than only concentrating on financial insertion, so that regional disparities may reduce and financial inclusion mission becomes successful.
Alam et al. (Thu,) studied this question.