Vol. 3, Issue 6, Part J (2017)

Abstract
Financial inclusion is widely recognised as one of most engines of inclusive growth of any country. Financial inclusion is the access to financial services, at affordable costs, to sections of disadvantaged and low income segments of society to facilitate investment and economic growth in the country. According to the Global Financial Development Report, 2014, about 50 percent of adults have one or more bank accounts, and a nearly equal share are unbanked in globally. In India nearly half of the poor are financially excluded from the country’s main stream of banking sector. New forms of financial intermediaries have emerged since the 1990s to provide social and community finance to socially vulnerable groups and support social organizations. These financial institutions are popularly known as social financing institutions. They may be in different forms and structures and spread largely in Europe, UK, India and the United States and also expanding worldwide.