The number of bank accounts under the nine-year-old Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has crossed the 500-million mark with total deposits exceeding ₹2 trillion, Union minister of state for finance Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad said on Tuesday.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the minister stated that as on 29 November, 510.4 million PMJDY accounts have been opened which have deposits of ₹2.08 trillion.
PMJDY was launched as the National Mission for Financial Inclusion on 28 August 2014, the minister said. It aims to ensure financial inclusion through universal access to banking facilities and a basic bank account for every unbanked adult.
The minister went on to say that there is no inbuilt provision of micro-investments, such as flexi-recurring deposits in the PMJDY scheme. However, PMJDY accounts holders can avail the benefits of micro-investments from their banks.
As on 22 November, 43 million PMJDY accounts have zero balance since these accounts do not need to have a minimum balance, the minister also said.
Earlier, speaking at the 20th Global Inclusive Finance Summit, financial services secretary Vivek Joshi asked private sector banks to increase their participation in the government’s financial inclusion programmes like PMJDY and Jan Suraksha, which would help the nation realize the ambitious goals on inclusion.
Joshi said while public sector banks participate actively, mainstream private sector banks do not and they need to catch up.
Besides PMJDY, other financial inclusion schemes include the Mudra Yojana and the StandUp India Scheme.
Joshi also said that currently, 18% of PMJDY accounts are inoperative. In addition, he asked banks and financial institutions to work on three areas—getting KYC done for inoperative accounts, nominations for bank accounts and strengthening cybersecurity.
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Published: 13 Dec 2023, 12:50 AM IST