Information communication technology (ICT) based business correspondence model: A growing avenue for ensuring financial inclusion in rural India

Abstract

There is a genuine demand for finance requirement in the remote rural areas, absence of formal banking forced private lenders exploit the rural public. Government of India made several attempts towards financial inclusion of the poor, since independence, particularly in rural areas. Lack of financial literacy and no bank branch operation in their remote location restrains them to have access to formal banking. To overcome these constraints the RBI introduced ICT based Business Correspondences as agent to undertake banking activity in the year 2006.Though BC model was successfully performing well, but the growth and share of Business correspondence decreasing gradually. Further, penetration of the usage of mobile technology even in the remote rural areas opens positively for the successful performance of BCs in rural. Hence this research paper is a descriptive study which focuses on understanding BCs as a growing avenue for ensuring financial inclusion in Rural India.