FINANCIAL INCLUSION IN NORTHEAST INDIA:A SWOT ANALYSIS

Deepjyoti Choudhury

doi:10.21844/mijia.12.01.8

Deepjyoti Choudhury Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, Assam University, Silchar, Assam. Pin: 788011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21844/mijia.12.01.8

Keywords: Branchless banking, credit, financial inclusion, Information Communication Technology, channel.

Abstract

Accumulation of human capital has always paved the way for economic development provided the accumulation and savings are organised and structured by a formal credit institution. But regions where majority of the populations reside in rural areas, with low infrastructure and literacy rate, the benefits of a formalised credit institutions have always not been tasted. Timely availability of credit and timely saving of the capital is of great necessity for the wellbeing of weak and deprived section of the population and thereby creating greater economic development. For instance the Credit-Deposit ratio of Northeast India to Rest of India is 35:73, which is a clear indicator of unutilised bank's resources in Northeast India. Financial Inclusion has been thought as an answer to bank the unbanked
and bring the weaker sections of society specially the rural people under the umbrella of authorised financial services provided by regulated financial institutions. The technological revolution and the vast use of ICT in banking sector has paved a way for the financial institution and are adopting branchless banking as their strategy. Branchless banking is expected to make their efforts successful towards financial inclusion. In this paper attempt has been made to understand the concept of Branchless banking and how it can be implemented in Northeast India.