The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on August 17, 2021 announced the formation of a composite Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) to capture the extent of financial inclusion across the country.
- The FI-Index for the period ended March 2021 stood at 53.9 compared with 43.4 for the period ended March 2017.
- The annual FI-Index will be published in July every year.
- The index incorporates details of banking, investments, insurance, postal as well as the pension sector in consultation with the government and respective sectoral regulators.
- The FI-Index comprises three broad parameters — access (35 per cent weightage), usage (45 per cent) and quality (20 per cent) — with each of these consisting of various dimensions, which are computed based on a number of indicators.
- The index is responsive to ease of access, availability and usage of services, and quality of services, comprising, in all, 97 indicators.
