The value of Financial Inclusion (FI) Index, which captures the extent of financial inclusion across the country, improved to 60.1 in March 2023 vis-à-vis 56.4 in March 2022, with growth witnessed across all sub-indices, according to the Reserve Bank of India.
Improvements in FI Index were mainly contributed by usage and quality dimensions, reflecting deepening of financial inclusion, per a central statement.
When FI Index was first published in August 2021, the Index for FY ending March 2021 was at 53.9. This index was at 43.4 for the period ending March 2017.
The FI Index has been conceptualised as a comprehensive index incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal as well as the pension sector in consultation with Government and respective sectoral regulators.
The index captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.
The FI Index comprises of three broad parameters (weights indicated in brackets) – access (35 per cent), usage (45 per cent), and quality (20 per cent) with each of these consisting of various dimensions, which are computed based on a number of indicators.