Mumbai, June 9 (IANS) A staggering 55.44 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened in India, 56 per cent of which belong to women, and the total amount in these deposits has surpassed Rs 2.5 lakh crore as of May 21 this year, RBI Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao revealed.

Attending a seminar on financial inclusion, Rao said: "The launch of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) that became the watershed moment in India’s. The Jan Dhan Yojana – Aadhar – Mobile i.e., JAM trinity, provided a quantum leap in our endeavour to ensure access to banking services for all adults, making it the world's largest financial inclusion programme."

He pointed out that the sheer volumes of the Jan Dhan accounts for the poor speaks about the impact of the scheme. The provision of universal access to bank accounts has not only increased the potential reach of other financial services but has also enabled frictionless delivery of welfare programs to the targeted segment through the adoption of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), Rao added.

He further stated that over the past decade, the fundamentals of banking have changed with the advent of digital modes of banking like net banking and mobile banking, as well as digital payments systems like Unified Payment Interface (UPI).

In FY 2024-25, digital payments surged 35 per cent Y-o-Y by volume to 60.81 crore transactions per day, with UPI accounting for 83.73 per cent of such transactions. The extraordinary uptake of UPI stands as a testament to the power of collaborative and use-case-driven innovation in driving financial inclusion, Rao observed.

"A particularly compelling example of this transformation can be seen in the informal sector—where today a street vendor or pop-up store owner nonchalantly places a QR code at the fore and receives payment for services without any hassle for cash and quietly integrating himself into the formal financial system with dignity and ease," he remarked.

The RBI Deputy Governor said that for further expanding and deepening the digital payments ecosystem in the country, a Payments Infrastructure and Development Fund has been constituted to encourage the deployment of payment acceptance infrastructure. Further, all State and Union Territory Level Bankers’ Committees have been advised to identify districts and assign them to designated banks, with an endeavour to make these districts 100 per cent digitally enabled.

The objective is to provide every eligible individual in the identified district at least one mode of digital payments viz., cards, net banking, UPI, AEPS7, etc. It is understood that as on March 31, 2025, 514 districts across 15 states and 6 UTs are 100 per cent digitally enabled. This marks a significant milestone in our journey towards a digitally inclusive economy, he added.

--IANS

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