Capturing the extent of financial inclusion across the country, The Reserve Bank of India's FI-Index rose to 64.2 in March 2024. This showcases a positive growth across all parameters. Furthermore, the index captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100. Here, 0 represents a complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made a statement on Tuesday, "The value of the index for March 2024 stands at 64.2 vis--vis 60.1 in March 2023, with growth witnessed across all sub-indices." Reflecting deepening of financial inclusion, iImprovement in FI-Index is mainly contributed by usage dimension.
Also to note, the FI-Index comprises three broad parameters which includes access (35 percent), usage (45 percent), and quality (20 percent). Each of these consists of various dimensions, which are computed based on a number of indicators.
The central bank said FI-Index has been conceptualized as a comprehensive index back in August 2021. This was carried out by incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal, as well as the pension sector. Furthermore, this was done in consultation with government and respective sectoral regulators.
The index is responsive to ease access, ensure availability and usage of services, and drive quality of services. Additionally, as per the RBI, a unique value proposition of the index is the quality parameter which captures the quality aspect of financial inclusion which are reflected by financial literacy, consumer protection, inequalities and deficiencies in services.
