Financial inclusion, a key measure to determine the growth of the economy, is the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to vast sections of disadvantaged income groups. It requires that people have access to basic banking and investment needs that includes bank account, insurance, digital payment, investment services and financial advisors. In India, a very large population stays in rural areas and has slightly fewer financial advantages over its counterpart. This gap has been closing downpost-Demonetization, in 2016, and with the rise of FinTech start-ups and NBFCs. Moreover, India has been actively involved in the preparation of relevant research and policy guides in Digitization, Regulation and Financial inclusion. Considering the improvements that have taken place, this paper is an attempt to study the evolution of financial inclusion between two data points – 2014 and 2017. Analysis revealed that while India has largely achieved the broad financial inclusion parameter of its citizens having an account, large-scale usage of financial services is still limited. Future policies should focus on active involvement of account holders in the formal financial system including savings, digital payments and borrowings.

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Keywords: Financial Inclusion, Financial Literacy, Financial Technology, Global Findex Database, RBI.