impact of digital banking in promoting financial inclusion

Digital financial inclusion can prove a master stroke in reaching the unserved and underserved population, especially to low income groups. With the aim of reaching such population banking and non banking sectors have started to render digital financial services to excluded people. The approach to digital channels and usage of financial services in formal way by the debarred and underserved populace is termed as "Digital Financial Inclusion". One of the decisive drivers that included majority of population in formal financial sector was Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna initiated by the Indian Government. Under this scheme the bank accounts of majority of the Indian citizens have been opened to provide the benefits of direct benefit transfer. The accounts of adults with any of the financial institutions have been increased from 52.8% to 79.8 % between years 2014 to 2017 that shows more than three hundred million people entered in formal financial sector in three years. If the digital financial services could be provided in an effective manner by the service providers it may bridge the gap in the way of financial inclusion by providing convenience, ease of use, time saving and low cost transaction features etc. Various digital banking channels have been introduced by the financial institutions and Government such as Automatic teller machines (ATMs), Cash dispensing machines, Internet banking, Mobile banking, Point of sales (POS) terminals, Unified payment interface (UPI) and Business correspondents etc. which made the banking easily accessible. In spite of presence of enormous digital banking platforms, still there are quite a few lacunas ingrained in the system that act as roadblock in the way of digital financial inclusion. Hence we cannot ignore the adverse factors and the risk associated with digital transactions.