Financial Inclusion: With Digital Payments Infrastructure, India Achieved In Six Years What Would Have Taken 47, Says World Bank Report

A G20 policy document prepared by the World Bank has disclosed that India's remarkable journey towards financial inclusion, with an astonishing 80% inclusion rate, was accelerated by the Digital Payment Infrastructure (DPI) known as the JAM Trinity - Jan Dhan Bank accounts, Aadhaar, and mobile phones. This monumental achievement, achieved in just six years, stands in stark contrast to the projected 47-year timeline in the absence of these critical elements, a News18 report says.

The document further highlights that India's digital payments landscape has witnessed an unprecedented surge, with the total value of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions during the last fiscal year reaching nearly 50% of the country's nominal GDP.

Moreover, the adoption of DPI has significantly reduced banks' customer onboarding costs in India, plummeting from $23 to a mere $0.1 per customer. As of March 2022, India has accrued total savings amounting to a staggering $33 billion, equivalent to approximately 1.14 per cent of its GDP, largely attributed to the effectiveness of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system, as indicated by the World Bank document.

This G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) document is presented by the World Bank, which served as an implementing partner in conjunction with the G20 India Presidency, represented by the finance ministry and the RBI.

As India prepares to host the G20 Summit in New Delhi this weekend, it aims to showcase its remarkable achievements and successes in the realm of digital payments and financial inclusion, illustrating how the JAM trinity has revolutionized the nation's financial landscape in just six years.