Our policies like the nationalization of banks, priority sector lending, setting up of Regional Rural Banks and encouragement to co-operatives date back to 1960s and 1970s underlining the fact that inclusive finance was always a national priority. The “Financial Inclusion Policy‟ introduced by the Reserve Bank of India in the year 2005 helped launch a 100 per cent financial inclusion drive. 24.
In doing this, India stands out as one of the few EMDEs for which the government has a documented financial inclusion strategy that contains specific commitments.