PRADHAN MANTRI JAN-DHAN YOJANA: CURRENT STATUS

PRADHAN MANTRI JAN-DHAN YOJANA: CURRENT STATUS Dr. M. Malla Reddy Asst. Professor of Commerce SRR Govt. Arts & Science College, Karimnagar-505001, Telangana, India. ABSRACT Despite tremendous growth of Banking Sector in India both horizontally and vertically, a large section of Indian population continues to remain unbanked even after attaining 69 years of our Independence. According to Census 2011, it was estimated that out of 24.67 crore households in the country, 14.48 crore (58.7%) households have access to banking services. Further, it is estimated that 6 crore households in rural and 1.5 crore in urban are need to be covered under Financial Inclusion. To address the issue of financial exclusion and long drawn financial sufferings, Hon ble Prime Minister shri Narendra Modi announced Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in his Independence speech on 15 th August, 2014 and operationally launched on 28 th August, 2014. This is a National Mission on Financial Inclusion (NMFI) encompassing an integrated approach to bring about comprehensive financial inclusion of all the excluded households in the country. It has been almost one and a half year that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) being started and has come a long way and achieved tremendous progress. The present study is aimed at analyzing the current status of the Pradhan Mantri Jan- Dhan Yojana with a view to know the progress. Further, an attempt is made to identify and present the challenges in transacting PMJDY. The study concludes that that a wide ranging and thorough framework, inclusive of Jan Dhan Yojana, Direct benefit cash transfer, minimizing zero balance accounts, financial literacy, improved infrastructure and selfsustaining last mile delivery model can result in effective financial inclusion. With firm intent and the ability to address challenges, financial inclusion for all can be realized in the near future. Key words: PMJDY, National Mission on Financial Inclusion, APY, PMSBY, PMJJBY, Zero Balance, Overdraft, RuPay Debit Cards and Financial Literacy. INTRODUCTION Financial inclusion has been a buzzword for the policymakers and government for a long time. Despite tremendous growth of Banking Sector in India both horizontally and vertically, a large section of Indian population continues to remain unbanked even after attaining 69 years of our Independence (Harpreet Kaur et al, 2015). According to Census 2011, it was estimated that out of 24.67 crore households in the country, 14.48 crore (58.7%) households have access to banking services. Of the 16.78 crore rural households, 9.14 crore (54.46%) were availing banking services. Of the 7.89 crore urban households, 5.34 crore (67.68%) households were availing banking services. Further, it is estimated that 6 crore households in rural and 1.5 crore in urban are need to be covered under Financial Inclusion. To address the issue of financial exclusion and long drawn financial sufferings, Hon ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi announced Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in his Independence speech on 15 th August, 2014 and operationally launched on 28 th August, 2014. This is a National Mission on Financial Inclusion (NMFI) encompassing an integrated approach to bring about comprehensive financial inclusion of all the excluded households in the country (DFS, 2014). The main objective of PMJDY is to ensure access to various financial services like availability of basic savings bank account, access to need based credit, remittances facility, insurance and pension to the excluded sections i.e., weaker sections and low income groups. This deep penetration at affordable cost is possible only with effective use of technology. Interestingly, Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) featured in Guinnes Book of World Records by 149

opening of 1, 80, 96,130 accounts by across the country within a week (from 23-29 August, 2014) as part of Financial Inclusion campaign (PIB, GoI, 2015). Mission Mode Objectives-Six Pillars PMJDY to be executed in the Mission Mode envisages provision of affordable financial services to all citizens within a reasonable distance. It comprises of the following six pillars:- a. Universal access to banking facilities: Mapping of each district into Sub Service Area (SSA) catering to 1000-1500 households in a manner that every habitation has access to banking services within a reasonable distance say 5 km by 14 August, 2015. Coverage of parts of J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, North East and the Left Wing Extremism affected districts which have telecom connectivity and infrastructure constraints would spill over to the Phase II of the program (15 August, 2015 to 15 August, 2018). b. Providing Basic Banking with overdraft facility and RuPay Debit card to all households: The effort would be to first cover all uncovered households with banking facilities by August, 2015, by opening basic bank accounts. Account holder would be provided a RuPay Debit Card. Facility of an overdraft to every basic banking account holder would be considered after satisfactory operation / credit history of six months. c. Financial Literacy Programme: Financial literacy would be an integral part of the Mission in order to let the beneficiaries make best use of the financial services being made available to them. d. Creation of Credit Guarantee Fund: Creation of a Credit Guarantee Fund would be to cover the defaults in overdraft accounts. e. Micro-Insurance: To provide micro-insurance to all willing and eligible persons by 14 August, 2018, and then on an ongoing basis. f. Unorganized sector Pension schemes like Swavalamban: By 14 August, 2018 and then on an ongoing basis. Under the mission, the first three pillars would be given thrust in the first year. Timeline for Financial Inclusion Plan Comprehensive Financial Inclusion of the excluded sections is proposed to be achieved by 14 August, 2018 in two phases as under: Phase I (15 August, 2014-14 August, 2015) Universal access to banking facilities in all areas except areas with infrastructure and connectivity constrains like parts of North East, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, J&K and 82 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) districts. Providing Basic Banking and RuPay Debit card which has inbuilt accident insurance cover of 1 lakh. Aadhaar number will be seeded to make account ready for DBT payment. Financial Literacy Programme Phase II (15 August, 2015-14 August, 2018) Overdraft facility up to ` 5000/- after six months of satisfactory operation / history Creation of Credit Guarantee Fund for coverage of defaults in A/Cs with overdraft limit up to 5,000/-. Micro Insurance Unorganized sector Pension schemes like Swavalamban 150

Some of the Phase II activities would also be carried out in Phase I. In addition, in this phase, coverage of households in hilly, tribal and difficult areas would be carried out. Moreover, this phase would focus on coverage of remaining adults in the households and students. NEED FOR THE STUDY It has been almost one and a half year since the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) being started and has come a long way and achieved tremendous progress. Dramatically, 99.74 per cent of households have been covered by opening of bank accounts under this National Mission on Financial Inclusion (NMFI) programme. As of December 30, 2015, more than 19.84 crore basic savings bank accounts were opened under PMJDY and there is a long way ahead to travel. At this moment there is a dire need to study and analyze the current status of Jan-Dhan accounts, Overdraft facility, RuPay Debit Cards Issue and so on. Hence, an attempt has been made in this paper to highlight the current status and to identify the challenges in transacting PMJDY. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To study and analyze the current status of the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana. 2. To identify and present the challenges in transacting PMJDY. Data and Methodology The present study is descriptive as well as analytical type of research in nature. This study is purely based on the secondary data. The secondary data has been collected from various sources such as Annual Reports of Ministry of Finance, Press Notes, Research Articles, Journals and Magazines, Online database and News papers etc. Simple statistical tools like Percentages, Averages and Graphs have been used wherever necessary. Period of the Study The present study has covered the data relating to Opened, Balance, Aadhaar Seeding, Zero Balance and Overdraft facility from 15 August, 2014 to 30 December, 2015. THE CURRENT STATUS OF PRADHAN MANTRI JAN-DHAN YOJANA The Government started the biggest financial inclusion initiative i.e., PMJDY to provide access to banking facilities starting with Basic Savings Bank Account with an Overdraft and RuPay Debit Card. An attempt has been made in this section to analyze the progress of various aspects of PMJDY. A. Jan-Dhan and RuPay Debit Cards Issued PMJDY will provide Basic Saving Bank Account to household and RuPay Debit Card with inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs. One lakh. Table 1 and Chart 1 show the data regarding the Jan-Dhan opened and RuPay Debit Cards issued under PMJDY as of 30 December, 2015 as follow. It can be seen from the Table 1 and Chart 1 that as of 30 December, 2015, more than 19.84 crore Basic Savings were opened by all across the country. Of total accounts, about 12.10 crore (61%) accounts were opened in Rural area and more than 7.73 crore accounts (39%) were opened in Urban area. About 78.32 per cent of the total accounts have been opened in Public Sector, followed by Regional Rural (RRBs) and Private which account for 17.97 per cent and 3.71 per cent respectively. Interestingly, majority of accounts in Rural area have been opened by the Public Sector which account for 43.38 per cent followed by Regional Rural 15.42 per cent and Private 2.22 per cent of 151

total rural area accounts. On the other hand, while majority of the accounts were opened in Public Sector which account for 34.94 per cent, about 17.97 per cent of accounts were opened in RRBs and 3.71 per cent of accounts were opened by the Private. It can be said that the Private have not shown much interest in opening of Jan-Dhan accounts as compared to Public Sector and RRBs. Table 1: Opened and Rupay Debit Cards Issued under PMJDY (As on 30-12-2015) Rural Urban Total % % % RuPay Debit Cards Issued Cards % Public Sector 86052376 43.38 69321788 34.94 155374164 78.32 136144105 80.82 Regional Rural 30585647 15.42 5068648 2.55 35654295 17.97 25740040 15.28 Private 4401890 2.22 2954184 1.49 7356074 3.71 6567229 3.90 Grand Total 121039913 61 77344620 38.99 198384533 100 168451374 100 Chart 1: Jan-Dhan Opened and Rupay Debit Cards Issued 20000000 15000000 10000000 50000000 0 Cards Public Sector Regional Rural Private Rural Urban Total Rupay Debit Cards Issued Further, it can be analyzed that more than 16.85 crore RuPay Debit Cards with inbuilt accident insurance cover of one lakh, have been issued to the account holders by all the across the country. Of total RuPay Debit Card, Public Sector have issued about 13.61 crore Cards (80.82%) and Regional Rural have issued more than 2.57 crore Cards ( 15.28%), while Private issued 0.66 crore Card that account for 3.9 per cent. On the whole, it can be inferred that the Public Sector have played a vital role in achieving the target of opening of Basic Savings and issue of RuPay Debit Cards under PMJDY not only in rural area but urban area as well when compared to RRBs and Private. However, it is found that about 2.99 crore RuPay Debit Cards are still to be issued to account holders as compared to total 152

accounts. Besides, More than Rs. 4273 crore have been routed through these accounts till June, 2015 towards payment of wages under MGNREGA (MGNREGA, 2015) and an amount of Rs. 1746 crore subsidy of LPG has been transferred through Jan-Dhan accounts from November, 2014 to 31 July, 2015 (MP&MG, 2015) B. Balance in and Aadhaar Seeding In order to keep the Jan-Dhan accounts live, it is necessary to maintain some balance and to make satisfactory transactions. Aadhaar seeding is a must so as to avoid duplication of accounts and to avail Overdraft facility. The information relating to Balance in, Zero Balance and being seeded with Aadhaar No. has been depicted in Table 2, Chart 2 and Chart 3. Table 2: Jan-Dhan with Balance, Zero Balance and Aadhaar Seeding (As on 30-12-2015) Balance in Rs. In Lakh % Zero Balance % Aadhaar Seeding % Public Sector 2303485.89 78.82 49553071 78.51 72160495 85.37 Regional Rural 502566.1 17.20 10577715 16.76 10073654 11.92 Private 116504.26 3.99 2984261 4.73 2291786 2.71 Grand Total 2922556.24 100 63115047 100 84525935 100 Analysis of the Table 2, Chart 2 and 3 reveal that the total amount of Balance in Jan-Dhan was Rs. 29,225.56 crore as of 30 December, 2015. Of which, the in Public Sector have a total balance of Rs. 23,034.86 crore (78.82%) followed by Regional Rural have a total Balance of Rs. 5,025.66 crore (17.20%) and Private of Rs. 1,165.04 crore (3.99%). Shockingly, more than 6.31 crore Jan-Dhan accounts have Zero Balance as of 30 December, 2015 which account for 31.80 per cent of total accounts. Interestingly, the Zero Balance accounts declined from 76 per cent in September 2014 to 31.80 per cent in December, 2015. Of the total Zero Balance accounts, while about 78.51 per cent of the accounts were found in Public Sector, more than 16.76 per cent accounts were found in RRBs and about 4.73 per cent of the accounts were found in Private. It is found that majority of the Zero Balance accounts were found in Public Sector. 153

Chart 2: Balance in Jan-Dhan Chart 3: No of with Zero Balance 2500000 2000000 1500000 1000000 500000 0 2303485.8 9 Public Sector 502566.1 Regional Rural 116504.26 Private 50000000 45000000 40000000 35000000 30000000 25000000 20000000 15000000 10000000 5000000 0 49553071 Public Sector 10577715 Regional Rural 2984261 Private Balance in Rs. In Lakh Zero Balance On the other hand, more than 8.45 crore Jan-Dhan accounts were seeded with Aadhaar Number and of which majority of the accounts i.e., 85.37 per cent are in Public Sector and 11.92 per cent of the accounts are in RRBs, while 2.71 per cent of the accounts are in Private. The main reason for not seeding of Aadhaar Number to Jan-Dhan accounts could be that recently the Supreme Court has given direction that Aadhaar seeding is option but not compulsory. C. Overdraft Sanctioned/Disbursed The Basic Saving Bank accounts opened under PMJDY have facility of availing Overdraft upto Rs. 5000 subject to satisfactory operations/transactions for the past six months and seeding of Aadhaar number is a must. Table 3 amd Chart 4 portray the data regarding Overdraft Sanctioned/Disbursed under PMJDY as of 27 November, 2015. Table 3: Overdraft (OD) Sanctioned/Disbursed under PMJDY (As on 27-11-2015) Overdraft %age of Total /Balance Total Offered for OD 4681128 2.36 Total OD Sanctioned 2419521 1.22 Total OD Availed 937460 0.47 Total Amount of OD Availed (Rs. In Lakh) 13131.19 0.45 Total / Total Balance (Rs. In Lakh) 198384533 2922556.24 154

E-KYC Accoun Opening Inter Operable withdrawal Txn. RuPay Card Inter Operable withdrawal Txn. AEPS IJRFM Volume 6, Issue 2 (February, 2016) (ISSN 2231-5985) It is evident from the Table 3 and Chart 4 that, as of 27 November, 2015, while more than 46.81 lakh accounts were offered for Overdraft facility, 24.19 lakh accounts were sanctioned for Overdraft and 9.37 lakh account holders availed Overdraft facility. The total no. of accounts offered for Overdraft account for 2.36 per cent of total Jan-Dhan accounts and is considered to be very low. On the other hand, the total amount of Overdraft availed was Rs. 131.31 crore which accounted for 0.45 per cent of total Balance in Jan-Dhan accounts. On the whole, it is to conclude that the total no. of accounts offered for Overdraft, sanctioned and availed are very low as compared to total Jan-Dhan accounts. Chart 4 : Overdraft (OD) Sanctioned/Disbursed under PMJDY 6000000 4681128 4000000 2000000 2419521 937460 13131.19 0 Total Offered for OD Total OD Sanctioned Total OD Availed Total Amount of OD Availed (Rs. In Lakh) D. Bank Mitra and Infrastructure The data relating to Bank Mitra and Infrastructure as on 25 December, 2015 has been shown in the Table 4 and Chart 5. Table 4: Bank Mitra and Infrastructure as on 25-12-2015 Public Sector Regional Rural Private SSA Allotted Rural (A) Total No. of Bank Mitra Required SSA Covered through fixed location Bank Mitra (B) SSA Covere d throug h Branc hes Uncov ered SSAs locations Uncovere d due to Connecti vity Active Bank Mitra doing Transction s (Out of B) 106778 88081 87882 18697 199 199 80082 78560 Bank Mitra having on-line 2469 6 82858 48719 35259 34668 13460 591 591 28480 15095 6946 19898 4419 3489 3489 930 0 0 2397 1911 1984 2263 Grand Total 159916 126829 126039 33087 790 790 110959 95566 It is very clear from the Table 4 and Chart 5 that for providing banking access in the country, out of total 1, 59,916 Sub-Service Areas (SSAs), 1, 26,039 SSAs were covered through fixed location Bank Mitras and 33,087 SSAs were covered through branches as of 28 December, 2015. 3362 6 105019 155

However, about 790 SSAs are not covered due to connectivity problem. In order to ensure universal banking access more than 1.26 lakh Bank Mitras have been deployed with on-line devices capable of e-kyc based account opening and significant number with interoperable payment facility. On the whole, it is to infer that about 790 SSAs are not covered due to connectivity problem. Chart 5: Bank Mitras and Infrastructure as on 25-12-2015 106778 88081 87882 48719 35259 34668 4419 3489 3489 18697 13460 930 199 591 0 SSA Allotted Rural (A) Total No. of Bank Mitra Required SSA Covered through fixed location Bank Mitra (B) SSA Covered through Branches Uncovered SSAs Public Sector Regional Rural Private E. Jan Dhan Se Jan Suraksha With a view to provide insurance and pension to the unsecured households, the Government of India introduced pension scheme, personal accident insurance and life insurance schemes as part of PMJDY. i. Atal Pension Yojana (APY) The Government of India has introduced a pension scheme called the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), with effect from 1st June, 2015, to create a universal social security system for all Indians, especially the poor, the under-privileged and the workers in the unorganised sector. APY is being administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) under the overall administrative and institutional architecture of the National Pension System (NPS). A total of 10.35 lakh subscribers have been enrolled under the Scheme as on 24.11.2015. ii. Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) The Pradhan Mantri Suraksha BimaYojana (PMSBY) is a one year personal accident insurance scheme, annually renewable offering coverage of Rs. 2 lakh for death or permanent total disability and Rs. 1 lakh for permanent partial disability due to an accident. It is available to people in the age group of 18 to 70 years. Under PMSBY, the gross enrolment reported by across the country was 9.16 crore as on 24 November, 2015 and the share of Public Sector including RRBs was 93.2 per cent. Interestingly, about 1491 Claims were registered and 740 Claims were disbursed under this scheme as of 23 November, 2015. 156

iii. Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) The Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti BimaYojana (PMJJBY) is a one year life insurance scheme, annually renewable offering coverage of Rs. 2 lakh for death due to any reason and is available to people in the age group of 18 to 50 years (life cover up to age 55 on payment of premium after enrolment up to age 50 years). Under this scheme, the gross enrolment reported by was 2.86 crore and the share of Public Sector including RRBs was 91 per cent as on 24 November, 2015. Dramatically, while 8558 Claims were registered, 5955 Claims were disbursed successfully as of 23 November, 2015. CHALLENGES IN TRANSACTING JAN-DHAN YOJANA The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana is an ambitious initiative with aggressive timelines and deliverables. The ability of the initiative to be successful in its endeavour to provide comprehensive financial inclusion to each citizen depends on coherent and efficient execution (KPMG, 2015). The following challenges have been identified in transacting the Jan-Dhan Yojana that need to be addressed to make the National Mission on Financial Inclusion to be a great successful. A. Infrastructural Issues Lack of physical and digital connectivity in hinterlands and hilly areas such as the North East, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Bihar pose a major hurdle in achieving complete Financial Inclusion. Technological issues that affect the banks range from poor connectivity, network outage, power shortage and bandwidth problems to managing costs of maintaining the infrastructure. As per the 2011 census, only 46,000 out of the six lakh villages in India have bank branches. Only 14 per cent of the 160,000 ATMs are in rural India. Electricity is a basic requirement for operationalization of banks, running ATMs and network connectivity, but large parts of the country suffer from limited or no access to electricity. It is found in the present study that about 790 Sub Service Areas (SSAs) were not covered due to connectivity problem as of 25 December, 2015. B. Keeping the "Live" One of the biggest challenge that previous inclusive banking initiatives such as; Swabhimaan and No-frills account faced was limited number of transactions in the newly opened accounts, which led to the account converting to dormancy. The current statistics also show that increasing transactions per account is a major challenge. It is found that the no. of Jan-Dhan with Zero Balance declined from 76 per cent in September 2014 to 31.80 per cent in December, 2015. Villagers are reluctant to travel to far located branches for depositing a small amount of money. It costs half of their day, time and loss of a full day s earnings. This is a serious concern to ponder upon. Further, the Government intends to route direct benefit cash transfer, LPG subsidy, pensions and any other subsidy for accounts opened under PMJDY, to ensure that accountholders have an incentive to conduct transactions on the account. However, sustainability and profitability of the account cannot survive on welfare schemes only. C. Financial and Technology Illiteracy Another important roadblock for PMJDY is lack of financial literacy. A survey conducted by financial services giant, Visa reveals that 65 per cent of Indians lack financial literacy. There is a lack of awareness, knowledge and skills among rural people to make informed decisions about savings, borrowings, investments and expenditure (Visa, 2012). Providing banking services through a branch led model to the last mile is an expensive proposition for banks. With the advent of technology it is now possible for banks to provide banking services to the last mile. However, adoption of technology for conducting banking transactions by the masses is still at a very nascent stage. There is lack of awareness about the financial products available and security considerations around online banking still persist. 157

D. Duplication of The lure of getting a large insurance cover, accidental death benefit cover and overdraft facility, may prompt people to open multiple accounts in different banks using different identification documents Aadhaar card, PAN card, Voter id card - as there is no single centralized information sharing system to detect duplication of account. Most financial inclusion and welfare schemes have struggled with on-boarding citizen information. An Aadhaar card is crucial for the success of the Jan Dhan Yojana as it is backed by biometric authentication which could eliminate the risk of fraud or duplication. The present study found that only 8.45 crore Jan-Dhan accounts were seeded with Aadhaar Number which account for 42.59 per cent. The main reason for not seeding of Aadhaar Number to Jan-Dhan accounts could be that recently the Supreme Court has given direction that Aadhaar seeding is option but not compulsory. Aggressive account opening targets may force to disregard duplication, and hence endangering the very intent of the scheme. In addition, e-kyc is an under-utilized technology. E. Managing the Ecosystem of Business Correspondents Business Correspondents act as intermediaries and function as representatives of the to provide financial services in un-banked areas. However, managing the Business Correspondent ecosystem is a complex and unwieldy task for the banks. Various bottlenecks of the BC model have come to light in the past few years- delay in payout of subsidies and remuneration granted under MNERGA, Direct benefit transfer, pension, etc. to villagers by Business Correspondents; Little incentive (only 2 per cent commission) to the Business correspondent leads to demands of commission from illiterate villagers for loan processing, withdrawal of money from account, outside bank s knowledge; Inadequate and inconsistent customer service by a Business Correspondent to customers which poses a reputational risk to the banking institution; Absence of proper training to a Business Correspondent agent regarding financial products and ability to handle customer complaints. As a Business Correspondent is key to the last mile connectivity, it is imperative for PMJDY to overcome the above mentioned bottlenecks. F. Economic Burden Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has been launched with a bouquet of benefits linked to it such as; overdraft facility, life insurance cover, accidental insurance benefit, pass book, cheque books, direct benefit transfer and RuPay debit card. Keeping newly opened accounts live, the insurance claim system functional, funneling subsidy money through direct cash transfer in the accounts and sustaining the overdraft facilities financially viable will imply costs for banks and the Government. The immediate challenge in front of the banks is to chart out a financially viable model of keeping the accounts live and providing the benefits linked to the accounts such as insurance cover and a card facility. Minimum balance kept in the account and number of transactions carried out per account in a year would decide the economic viability of this scheme. FINDINGS It is found that more than 19.84 crore Basic Savings Bank were opened under the ambitious financial inclusion scheme PMJDY by all the across the country as of 30 December, 2015. Of which about 12.10 crore (61%) have been opened in Rural area and more than 7.73 crore (39%) have been opened in Urban area. Public Sector played a vital role in opening of Jan-Dhan accounts with majority share. It is observed that more than 16.85 crore RuPay Debit Cards with inbuilt accident insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh have been issued to the Account holders and successfully 333 Claims have been paid during the study period. 158

Analysis of the Jan-Dhan reveals that the total amount of Balance in was found to be Rs. 29,225.56 crore as of 30 December, 2015. Dramatically, the Zero Balance declined from 76 per cent in September, 2014 to 31.80 per cent in December, 2015. With regard to Aadhaar Seeding, it is found that only 8.45 crore Jan-Dhan have been seeded with Aadhaar No. which account for 42.59 per cent of the total Jan-Dhan during the study period. It can be stated that, as of 27 November, 2015, while more than 46.81 lakh accounts were offered for OD, about 24.19 lakh accounts were sanctioned for OD and only 9.37 lakh account holders availed OD facility of Rs. 131.31 crore which account for just 0.45 per cent of total Balance in Jan-Dhan. Further, it is found that about 790 Sub-Service Areas (SSAs) were not covered due to connectivity problems as of 28 December, 2015. It is observed that while a total of 10.35 lakh subscribers were enrolled under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), more than 9.16 crore subscribers were enrolled under the PMSBY as of 24 November, 2015. Interestingly, about 1494 Claims were registered and 740 Claims were disbursed successfully under the PMSBY as of 23 November, 2015. Under PMJJBY, only 2.86 crore subscribers were enrolled by across the country as of 24 November, 2015, of which 8558 Claims were registered and 5955 Claims were successfully disbursed as of 23 November, 2015. CONCLUSION The National Mission on Financial Inclusion initiative Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has come a long way in its endeavours and has opened almost 99.74 per cent of accounts by for financially excluded households across the country. Though it is not the first of its kind, PMJDY holds greater promise that its predecessor because it is more geographically wide spread, provides greater benefits, embraces technology and garners greater support from critical stakeholders i.e., the Government, and Regulators. However, there are many challenges in transacting Jan-Dhan Yojana such as - Zero Balance, keeping the accounts live, Financial and Technical illiteracy and lack of awareness about social security schemes that need be addressed. There is a need to link other initiatives of the Government (Make in India, Skill India and Start-up India etc.) with PMJDY which aimed at building economic activities around villages that could generate employment opportunities. Further, there is urgent need to create awareness about Financial and Technical literacy and social security schemes like APY, PMSBY and PMJJBY to get more enrolment by account holders and poor people. On the whole it can be concluded that a wide ranging and thorough framework, inclusive of Jan Dhan Yojana, Direct benefit cash transfer, financial literacy, improved infrastructure and self-sustaining last mile delivery model can result in effective financial inclusion. With firm intent and the ability to address challenges, financial inclusion for all can be realized in the near future. 159

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