INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Yojana, making it the world's second largest unbanked population after that of China, the World Bank said today.Besides, almost half of the
bank accounts remained inactive in the past year, the multilateral financial institution said in a report, even as it lauded the Indian
government's financial inclusion scheme, the Jan Dhan Yojana, for bringing in additional 31 crore Indians into formal banking system by
March 2018.It also said the country's adult population with a bank account has more than doubled to 80 per cent since 2011
The Jan Dhan Yojana was launched by the Modi government in 2014.According to the latest Global Findex Database released by the World Bank on
the sidelines of the annual Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, 11 per cent of the world's unbanked adults
escaping poverty.This is up from 62 per cent in 2014 and just 51 per cent in 2011
From 2014 to 2017, 515 million adults obtained an account, and 1.2 billion have done so since 2011, according to the Global Findex
database.The bank said China and India, despite having relatively high account ownership, claim large shares of the global unbanked
population because of their sheer size.Home to 225 million adults without an account, China has the world's largest unbanked population,
to increase account ownership through biometric identification cards has benefited traditionally excluded groups, the World Bank said, but
be India's Jan-Dhan Yojana scheme, developed by the government to increase account ownership, brought an additional 310 million Indians into
share of adults with an account has more than doubled since 2011, to 80 per cent, the World Bank said, adding that an important factor
driving this increase was a government policy launched in 2014 to boost account ownership among unbanked adults through biometric
identification cards."This policy benefited traditionally excluded groups and helped ensure inclusive growth in account ownership, the
report said.Between 2014 and 2017, account ownership in India rose by more than 30 percentage points among women as well as among adults in
the poorest 40 per cent of households.Among men and among adults in the wealthiest 60 per cent of households it increased by about 20
percentage points.The World Bank said a strong government push to increase account ownership through biometric identification cards in India
helped narrow both the gender gap and the gap between richer and poorer adults.In India three years ago, men were 20 percentage points more
likely than women to have an account."Today, India's gender gap has shrunk to 6 percentage points thanks to a strong government push to
increase account ownership through biometric identification cards," the report said.Observing that for governments, switching from cash to
digital payments can reduce corruption and improve efficiency, the World bank said in India the leakage of funds for pension payments
dropped by 47 per cent (2.8 percentage points) when the payments were made through biometric smart cards rather than being handed out in
cash.According to the report, the gender gap in the use of digital payments varies substantially among developing economies.In India, for
example, 42 per cent of male account owners use digital payments, while just 29 per cent of female account owners do, it said."In the past
few years, we have seen great strides around the world in connecting people to formal financial services," World Bank Group President Jim
Yong Kim said."Financial inclusion allows people to save for family needs, borrow to support a business, or build a cushion against an
emergency."Having access to financial services is a critical step towards reducing both poverty and inequality, and new data on mobile phone
ownership and internet access show unprecedented opportunities to use technology to achieve universal financial inclusion," he
added.Globally, 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked, yet two-thirds of them own a mobile phone that could help them access financial
services.Digital technology could take advantage of existing cash transactions to bring people into the financial system, the report
finds.In South Asia, the share of adults with an account rose by 23 percentage points, to 70 per cent.Progress was driven by India, where a
government policy to increase financial inclusion through biometric identification pushed the share with an account up to 80 per cent, with
big gains among women and poorer adults.Excluding India, regional account ownership still rose by 12 percentage points but men often
