The heterogeneity in view about the financial inclusion prevails across the globe. Since the need of financial products varies from individual to individual and country to country ( Kempson and Whyley, 1999 ; Regan and Paxton, 2003 ; Speak and Graham, 2000 ). But, majority of researchers and thinkers opine that ‘financial inclusion is the easy availability of all banking services at an affordable cost, reasonable time & adequate quantity to all needy people and which should also be available in appropriate forms’ (broader sense); ‘financial inclusion includes the easy access of all people to the minimum basic financial services’ (narrow sense). The determinants and impacts of financial inclusion are main ingredients of the article. The depth ratio emerged as leading contributor in the value of financial inclusion index among all the three variables—depth or penetration, availability and usage—across the world, including Indian states, through the log-linear regression model. The study further indicated that a 1 per cent increase in the financial inclusion led to on an average 0.142 per cent increase in the value of human development index (cross-country data); while in case of Indian states, it resulted into 0.139 per cent increase in the index. The depth, availability and usages ratios were found to be inversely associated to the poverty. The study found only three states of India in between high financial inclusion position, while remaining 90 per cent states belong to very low/weak financial inclusion status. On the basis of findings of the study, it is suggested that the policy makers around the globe should strive to surge the level of financial inclusion for an optimal, sustainable, inclusive economic growth and development of the economies by focusing on removing the regional imbalances.

In this paper, we have analyzed the status of financial inclusion in Haryana from 2001 to 2009, on the basis of deposit and credit accounts per 1000 people, population per bank office, and uses ratio. The parametric and non-parametric statistical tools have been applied to analyze the various dimensions of the financial inclusion. The study clearly shows that there is no significant difference between the Haryana and India in financial inclusion, but, the status of Haryana is somewhat better as compared to aggregate status of India.

The study suggests that the stream of women migration is not favorable for the social structure in general and rural area in particular for India. So, the Indian policy makers should concentrate on rural development to surge the sex ratio in general and rural areas in particular to save the social structure, rural culture and as well as an optimum development of urban areas of the country.

The study points out that low coverage, low operational performance, low participation of volunteer farmers, low awareness of farmers, low access of farmers to institutional credit, continuous banks' failure in achieving the target of priority sector in common and agriculture credit in particular, shrinking the banking facilities in rural areas, re-emergence of unauthorized source of credit in rural areas, low education of farmers, non cooperation of bankers towards farmers, problems of design and implementation of the NAIS, problems of obtaining accurate and timely price data from local markets, the model of measurement of agriculture loss by natural hazards which is not appropriate to all farmers are the common weakness of the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS). The agriculture sector of India-the main employment provider and the backbone of Indian economy, is affected most by recurring natural hazards due to climate changes, and requires the most care and protection against all sort of uncertainties, hence, NAIS can prove itself as the best protector (Ram Baan) in this context.

No abstract