Financial Inclusion and Development

The 30th Meeting of the Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) to review the flow of credit to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector was held in Coimbatore on October 27, 2025, under the chairmanship of Shri Swaminathan J, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India. The meeting was attended by the Executive Directors from RBI, Additional Secretary from the Ministry of MSME and Joint Secretary from the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India; Chairman, SIDBI; Managing Directors of SBI and Punjab National Bank, senior management of major banks and NABARD; senior executives of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC), Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), Finance Industry Development Council (FIDC), and representatives from MSME associations. The last two meetings of SAC were held in Lucknow and Ahmedabad.

Banks are engaged in a country-wide campaign, being conducted at Gram Panchayat level from July 1, 2025 to September 30, 2025, for saturation of Financial Inclusion (FI) schemes, as part of which, re-KYC of bank accounts is also being undertaken. The camps are also being utilized to create awareness about unclaimed deposits and to redress grievances. As on August 11, 2025, over 1.41 lakh camps have been held and re-KYC in over 35 lakh accounts has been completed. The progress in achievement of the expected outcomes is being monitored closely by the Government and Reserve Bank.

The Reserve Bank of India had constructed a composite Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) in consultation with the concerned stakeholders including the Government, to capture the extent of financial inclusion across the country, which was first published in August 2021 for the FY ending March 2021.

Reserve Bank of India has issued the revised guidelines on Priority Sector Lending (PSL) today after a comprehensive review of existing provisions taking into account feedback from stakeholders. The new guidelines which come into effect from April 01, 2025, include the following major changes:

Reserve Bank has been conducting Financial Literacy Week (FLW) every year since 2016 to promote financial literacy. Governor Shri Sanjay Malhotra launched the tenth edition of Financial Literacy Week (FLW) 2025 and the theme for the current year is Financial Literacy: Women’s Prosperity" (वित्तीय समझदारी - समृद्ध नारी)