NEW DELHI: Financial inclusion is a key step towards inclusive growth which ensures the overall economic development of the marginalised sections of society, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday.

The success of the Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojana (PMJDY), the flagship financial inclusion scheme, since August 28, 2014 is reflected in terms of opening of over 46 crore bank accounts with deposit balance of Rs 1.74 lakh crore with its expanded coverage to 67 per cent rural or semi-urban areas as well as 56 per cent of women Jan Dhan account holders, said Finance Minister.

“Financial inclusion was a major step towards inclusive growth which ensures the overall economic development of the marginalised sections of the society”, she added while commenting on the eighth anniversary of PMJDY on Sunday. "Continuation of PMJDY beyond 2018 saw a marked shift in approach to meet challenges and requirements of the emerging financial inclusion landscape in India.

"There has been a shift in focus from 'everyhousehold 'to 'every adult', with added emphasis on usage of accounts by enhancing Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) flows through these accounts, promoting digital payments through the use of RuPay cards, etc," an official statement quoted the minister as saying. The underlying pillars of PMJDY viz., banking the unbanked, securing the unsecured and funding the unfunded -- has made it possible to adopt multi stakeholders' collaborative approach while leveraging technology for serving the unserved and underserved areas as well, she observed.

The Jan Dhan Yojana, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address in 2014, was launched on August 28 in the same year. She also said the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) pipeline created through account holders' consent-based linking of bank accounts with Aadhar and mobile numbers of the account holders, which is one of the important pillars of the financial inclusion ecosystem, has enabled instant DBT under various government welfare schemes to the eligible beneficiaries.

The advantage of the architecture created under FIecosystem came handy during the pandemic when it facilitated direct income support to farmers under PMKISAN and transfer of ex-gratia payment to women PMJDY account holders under PM Garib Kalyan Package in a seamless and time-bound manner, finance minister said.