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Mahesh

29/08/24 07:58 AM IST

Jan Dhan Yojana

In News
  • Since its launch in 2014, the government’s flagship financial inclusion scheme has resulted in the opening of more than half a billion bank accounts.
  • Along with the other two elements of the JAM trinity, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has had a transformative impact on the financial and banking sectors.
PMJDY
  • The PMJDY was one of the early initiatives of the Modi government.
  • The Prime Minister announced the scheme in his first Independence Day address on August 15, 2014.
  • The scheme was launched on August 28.
  • Banks organised 77,892 camps around the country, and opened about 1.8 crore accounts.
  • Guinness World Records recognised the achievement: “The most bank accounts opened in 1 week as part of a financial inclusion campaign is 18,096,130 and was achieved by Department of Financial Services, Government of India from 23 to 29 August 2014.”
  • The launch of PMJDY provided an unprecedented boost to the government’s campaign for financial inclusion, at a scale never seen before.
  • The foremost objective of the PMJDY was to open a Basic Savings Bank Account for unbanked individuals.
  • There was no requirement to maintain any minimum balance in PMJDY accounts, and these accounts earned interest on deposits like regular accounts.
  • In PMJDY account-holders were given RuPay debit cards.
  • An accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh was available with RuPay cards issued to PMJDY account holders.
  • The cover was enhanced to Rs 2 lakh for new PMJDY accounts opened after August 28, 2018.
  • Eligible PMJDY account holders can avail overdraft (OD) facility up to Rs 10,000.
  • PMJDY accounts are also eligible for Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Atal Pension Yojana (APY), and the Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Bank (MUDRA) scheme
Progress of the scheme
  • As of August 14, 2024, the number of PMJDY accounts stands at 53.13 crore — including 35.37 crore accounts in rural and semi-urban areas, and 17.76 crore accounts in urban areas — and total deposits at Rs 2,31,235.97 crore.
  • More than half the PMJDY accounts (29.56 crore) are in the names of women.
  • A total 36.14 crore RuPay debit cards have been issued to PMJDY account holders.
  • The largest share of PMJDY accounts is with public sector banks (41.42 crore accounts until August 14), followed by Regional Rural Banks (9.89 crore accounts), private sector banks (1.64 crore), and Rural Cooperative Banks (0.19 crore).
  • A statewise analysis of PMJDY accounts shows the most accounts have been opened in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state (9.45 crore), and the fewest in Lakshadweep (only 9,256 accounts).
  • There are 15 states apart from UP with more than 1 crore PMJDY bank accounts: Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Assam, Odisha, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Haryana.
Impact of the scheme
  • The scheme, which is one of the components of the JAM trinity of PMJDY, Aadhaar, and mobile, has had a transformative impact on the financial and banking sectors of the economy.
  • First, the opening of more than half a billion bank accounts has fuelled demand for banking services, encouraging commercial banks to expand their infrastructure in recent years.
  • The number of branches of scheduled commercial banks in the country has increased by 46 per cent to 1,54,983 in 2023 from 1,05,992 in 2013.
  • Of the total 1.54 lakh branches, 35 per cent are in rural areas, 28 per cent in semi-urban areas, 18 per cent in urban areas, and 19 per cent in metropolitan areas.
  • The number of ATMs has increased by 30 per cent from 1,66,894 at the end of June 2014 to 2,16,914 in 2024.
  • The number of Points of Sale (POS) has increased from 10.88 lakh to 89.67 lakh during the last 10 years.
  • Second, the rollout of payment solutions such as UPI — launched two years after the PMJDY — has eased and increased banking transactions.
  • The digital technological revolution widened the usability of bank accounts from a traditional deposit or credit account to a payment intermediary.
  • As per the World Bank’s Findex database, 78 per cent of Indian adults (population with 15 years or more of age) had a bank account in 2021 as compared to 53 per cent in 2014.
  • PMJDY accounts have become the bedrock of the government’s DBT architecture.
  • While this has ensured faster delivery of benefits to the poor, the JAM trinity has played a crucial role in improving efficiency by weeding out ineligible or fake beneficiaries.
  • In fact, DBT and other governance reforms resulted in a gain of Rs 3.48 lakh crore in the implementation of government schemes including MG-NREGS and PM-Kisan until March 2023.
Source- Indian Express

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