The Reserve Bank of India’s latest Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) score of 67 for FY 2025 has been rightly welcomed as a sign of progress. The steady rise from 64.2 in FY 2024 reflects continuing momentum towards broader and deeper access to formal finance. Among its three pillars—access, usage, and quality—the sharpest gain has come in access, which jumped from 61.7 to 73.3. This underlines how far the reach of banking infrastructure and digital services has expanded in recent years.

India has travelled a long distance from the days when opening a bank account meant queuing outside a branch with multiple documents. Today, the scale is unmatched: 886 million internet users, of which 488 million are rural; UPI processing 185.8 billion transactions worth ₹261 lakh crore in FY 2025, up

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