Rating agency CRISIL has released the latest scores for CRISIL Inclusix, its financial inclusion index, based on the latest data provided by the Reserve Bank of India. The index measures financial inclusion up to the level of each of the 638 districts in India.
Roopa Kudva, MD & CEO, CRISIL, said India’s overall CRISIL Inclusix score has risen by 2.7 in fiscal 2012 – the highest annual increase since 2009. As many as 587 out of a total 638 districts in India and 34 out of 35 states and Union territories improved their scores, reflecting a broad-based improvement in financial inclusion, she added.
CRISIL said the growing momentum in financial inclusion can be seen in the following trends:
- A significant rise in new savings accounts across the 5 regions – north, south, east, west and north-east. Overall, 79 million new savings accounts were opened in fiscal 2012, 12.6% more than in fiscal 2011.
- Agricultural credit accounts have grown at 11.1%, which is the most since fiscal 2009.
- The number of bank branches in the bottom 100 districts has increased by 6%, faster than the all-India growth of 5.6%.
The four key elements driving the CRISIL Inclusix score up by 2.7 in fiscal 2012 were:
- New deposit accounts in three regions – north, south and east. This contributed 42% to the rise in CRISIL Inclusix.
- he north, by adding 2.4 million new credit accounts, contributed 11% to the index’s increase.
- Almost 30% of the 5,125 new branches were added in the south, which contributed 9% to the increase.
- Credit penetration in the top 50 districts jumped.
