Skip to main content

What is Financial Inclusion (FI) Index?

Achieving complete financial inclusion is one of the important goals of the nations and central banks across the world. But how do we measure the extent to which the population of the country is financially included? Well, there is an index in India for this.

What is Financial Inclusion (FI) Index?

The composite Financial Inclusion (FI) Index was constructed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in August 2021, to capture the extent of financial inclusion across the country.

FI-Index has been conceptualised as a comprehensive index incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal as well as the pension sector in consultation with Government and respective sectoral regulators. 

What are the parameters of FI-index?

The FI-index comprises of three broad parameters (comprising of 97 indicators) with different weights assigned to each parameter.

  1. Ease of Access (35%)
  2. Availability and usage of services (45%)
  3. Quality of services (20%)

The 'Quality' parameters captures the quality aspect of financial inclusion as reflected by financial literacy, consumer protection, and inequalities and deficiencies in services.

What is the base year of FI-index?

The FI-index has been constructed without any 'base-year' and as such it reflects cumulative efforts of all stakeholders over the years towards financial inclusion.

What does FI-index value mean?

The FI-index captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.

How often is FI-index released?

The FI-index (as on March) is published by RBI annually in the months of July.

What is FI-index value in India?

(Updated on July 22, 2025)

The value of FI-Index for March 2025 stands at 67.0 vis-à-vis 64.2 in March 2024, with growth witnessed across all sub-indices, viz., Access, Usage and Quality. Improvement in FI-Index in FY 2025 is contributed by Usage and Quality dimensions, reflecting deepening of financial inclusion, and sustained financial literacy initiatives.


References

Reserve Bank of India. (2021, August 17). 'Reserve Bank of India introduces the Financial Inclusion Index'. Retrieved from https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=52068

Reserve Bank of India. (2025, July 22). 'Financial Inclusion Index for March 2025'. Retrieved from https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=60875


Follow at - Telegram   Instagram   LinkedIn   Twitter

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Highlights of RBI Annual Report 2023-24 – Chapter 7 to 12

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has published its annual report for the financial year 2023-24. In a series of articles, we will go through the highlights of the report. This is the fifth and last article in the series.  Chapter 7 – Public Debt Management Ways And Means Advances (WMA) limit for the Government of India (GoI) for H1:2023-24 (April to September 2023) was fixed at ₹1,50,000 crore and for H2:2023-24 (October 2023 to March 2024) was fixed at ₹50,000 crore. RBI issued an ultra-long security of 50-year tenor aggregating ₹30,000 crore to cater to the growing needs of long-term institutional players. Issuance of Sovereign Green Bonds (SGrBs) for an aggregate amount of ₹20,000 crore included maiden issuance of 30-year (₹10,000 crore) SGrB in addition to 5-year (₹5,000 crore) and 10-year (₹5,000 crore) SGrBs. A new 3-year benchmark security was introduced as part of government market borrowing programme during H1:2023-24.  The basket of products offered through the ‘Retail ...
Post a Comment
Read more

RBI’s Monetary Policy (August 06, 2025): In A Nutshell

The bi-monthly monetary policy of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was announced on August 06, 2025. Here are some of the highlights of the monetary policy announcement. Rates   Change Rate Policy repo rate Unchanged 5.50% Standing deposit facility (SDF) rate 5.25% Marginal standing facility (MSF) rate 5.75% Bank rate 5.75% Monetary policy stance Monetary policy stance unchanged as ‘neutral’. Domestic Economy  Real GDP growth for 2025-26 is projected at 6.5%. CPI headline inflation declined for the eighth consecutive month to a 77-month low (since January 2019) of 2.1% in June, driven primarily by a sharp decline in food inflation. Food inflation recorded its first negative print since February 2019 at (-) 0.2% in June. CPI inflation for 2025-26 is projected at 3.1%. India’s current account deficit (CAD) moderated to 0.6% of GDP in 2024-25 from 0.7% of GDP in 2023-24 due to robust services exports and strong remittances receipts despite higher merchandise trade deficit. As on Augus...
Post a Comment
Read more

Non-Fund Based Credit Facilities

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued directions on non-fund based credit facilities. To whom shall the directions be applicable? The directions shall apply to the following Regulated Entities (REs) for all their Non-Fund Based (NFB) exposures such as guarantee, letter of credit, co-acceptance etc. Commercial Banks (including Regional Rural Banks and Local Area Banks) Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs) / State Co-operative Banks (StCBs) / Central Co-operative Banks (CCBs) All India Financial Institutions (AIFIs) Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) including Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) in Middle Layer and above, only for the issuance of Partial Credit Enhancement. The directions shall not apply to the derivative exposures of a RE. Which NFB facilities are permitted to be issued by RE? RE shall issue a NFB facility only on behalf of a customer having funded credit facility from the RE. However, this shall not be applicable in respect of – Derivative contracts entered int...
Post a Comment
Read more

Co-Lending Arrangements (CLAs)

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued directions on co-lending arrangements which will replace the existing guidelines on co-lending by banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to priority sector. What is Co-Lending Arrangement (CLA)? Co-Lending Arrangement (CLA) refers to an arrangement, formalised through an ex-ante agreement, between a regulated entity (RE) which is originating the loans (‘originating RE’) and another RE which is co-lending (‘partner RE’), to jointly fund a portfolio of loans, comprising of either secured or unsecured loans, in a pre-agreed proportion, involving revenue and risk sharing. To whom shall the directions be applicable? The directions shall be applicable to CLAs entered into by the following REs – Commercial Banks (excluding Small Finance Banks, Local Area Banks and Regional Rural Banks) All-India Financial Institutions Non-Banking Financial Companies (including Housing Finance Companies) Which lending arrangements are exempt from the applicabil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Investment in Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs)

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued directions for investment in Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) which will replace the existing guidelines . To whom shall the directions be applicable? The directions shall be applicable to investments by the following regulated entities (REs) in units of AIF Schemes – Commercial Banks (including Small Finance Banks, Local Area Banks and Regional Rural Banks) Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks / State Co-operative Banks / Central Co-operative Banks All-India Financial Institutions Non-Banking Financial Companies (including Housing Finance Companies) What shall be the limits for investment in AIF schemes? No RE shall individually contribute more than 10% of the corpus of an AIF Scheme. Collective contribution by all REs in any AIF Scheme shall not be more than 20% of the corpus of that scheme. Outstanding investments or commitments of a RE, made with prior approval from RBI under the provisions of Master Direction – Reserve Bank of India (Financi...
Post a Comment
Read more