Introduction
The Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India have been making concerted efforts to promote financial inclusion as one of the important national objectives of the country. Some of the major efforts made in the last five decades include - nationalization of banks, building up of robust branch network of scheduled commercial banks, co-operatives and regional rural banks, introduction of mandated priority sector lending targets, lead bank scheme, formation of self-help groups, permitting BCs/BFs to be appointed by banks to provide door step delivery of banking services, zero balance BSBD accounts, etc. The fundamental objective of all these initiatives is to reach the large sections of the hitherto financially excluded Indian population.
The speech is organized in five sections:
Section 1 - Definitions
Section 2 - Extent of Financial Exclusion
Section 3 – RBI Policy Initiatives and Progress in Financial Inclusion
Section 4 – Stakeholder-wise Issues in Financial Inclusion
Section 5 – Conclusion and Way forward

Section - 1
Definitions
1.1 Financial inclusion may be defined as the process of ensuring access to financial services and timely and adequate credit where needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups at an affordable cost (The Committee on Financial Inclusion, Chairman: Dr. C. Rangarajan).
1.2 Financial Inclusion, broadly defined, refers to universal access to a wide range of financial services at a reasonable cost. These include not only banking products but also other financial services such as insurance and equity products (The Committee on Financial Sector Reforms, Chairman: Dr.Raghuram G. Rajan). Household access to financial services is depicted in Figure I.

1.3 The essence of financial inclusion is to ensure delivery of financial services which include - bank accounts for savings and