Financial Inclusion-A CSR approach by financial Sector or A Profitable Venture approach

Financial inclusion is one of the major determinants for sustainable future economic growth in India. Rural and low income socially excluded segment of society can play a crucial role in growth of financial sector as other sectors like FMCG. To further avoiding the undermining of this segment, RBI took rigorous initiatives as CSR and provided guidelines to all scheduled commercial banks for come forward to provide financial services to these people. This paper explores the various innovative ways and policies adopted by financial institutes under the guidelines of RBI for financial Inclusion. Many innovative financial products like No Frills Accounts (NFA), Micro pension, GCC, KCC etc. have been developed by financial institutions. Strong relationships has been build up with intermediaries like SHG (Self Help Groups)-Bank Linkage Programme (SBLP), Business Correspondents (BC's), Business facilitators (BF's), Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) by financial Institutions. Implementation of technology in developing the new products and making accessible the financial services to low income people is a big achievement of RBI. Such CSR initiatives taken by RBI really helped the growth of financial sector of India as well as increased the goodwill and customer base of banks. Financial inclusion is a continuous process and with one time efforts financial inclusion can't be penetrated up to desired level among poor people. For long run, These CSR initiatives would prove a profitable venture for bank and definitely they will reap the tremendous profit from financial inclusion based CSR initiatives.