The value of the Financial Inclusion (FI) index, which reflects the level of financial inclusion across the country, rose to 60.1 in March 2023 from 56.4 in March 2022, with growth seen in all sub-indices, according to the Reserve Bank of India.
According to a central statement, the improvement in the financial index came mainly from the usage and quality dimensions, reflecting deepening financial inclusion.
When the FI Index was first released in August 2021, it stood at 53.9 for the fiscal year ending March 2021. The index as of March 2017 was 43.4.
The FI Index has been conceptualized as a composite index containing detailed information from the banking, investment, insurance, postal and pension sectors in consultation with the government and respective sectoral regulators.
The index captures information on all aspects of financial inclusion as a single value between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 represents complete financial inclusion.
The FI Index consists of three major parameters (weights shown in parentheses) – access (35%), usage (45%) and quality (20%), each consisting of different dimensions calculated based on Multiple indicators.
