RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT

ON

“FINANCIAL INCLUSION: A STUDY ON

Towards partial fulfilment of

Presented By:
Simran
Roll. No. 1220672345
MBA 4th Semester
 INTRODUCTION
Globally, the term "financial inclusion" being a buzzword for a couple of decades. It occupied prominence in
policy making, particularly in emerging economies, where many people are reported to be unbanked and
financially vulnerable. Financial inclusion aims to provide different financial products at a low price to all
societal groups without discrimination, especially focusing on the unbanked and underbanked. Equal
allocation and availability of finance to all have been recognized as a vital aspect of inclusive growth,
poverty reduction, improved quality of life, enhanced savings & investments, creation of employment, and
overall development of the economy. Therefore, an inclusive financial system ensures the equal availability,
accessibility, and usability of financial services by all sections of society. In an economy, financial services
are said to be the key drivers of economic growth, minimizing regional imbalances, and poverty reduction
(Bansal, 2014). Financial services enable households and businesses to save, invest, and protect from risk
(Nikolov, 2017). Generally, an account at a bank is fundamental to avail of saving deposits, loans,
investments, payments, remittances, and insurance products. But the availability, accessibility, and usage of
these services vary throughout the world, and regions within the nations. The World Bank’s Findex Database
(2017) reported that globally 1.7 billion people had no accounts with any banks or post offices., which
represented 31 percent of the global population, India alone accounts for around 11 percent (191.3 million) of
the global unbanked population. The majority of theunbanked population is from low and middle-income
countries and too from rural areas. The existing literature identified many reasons for financial exclusion.
Low income, unemployment, low education, financial illiteracy, the geographical distance of financial
institutions, unsuitable financial services, the cost associated with accessibility and usage of financial
services, lengthy documentation process, lack of faith, limited financial resources, and poverty are few of the
obstacles for financial exclusion.
 INDUSTRY PROFILE
The Digital India program is a flagship agenda of the Government of India with vision to transform India into a
digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. “Faceless, Paperless, Cashless is one of the professed role
of Digital India. The Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi has empowered India to adopt cashless
transactions by giving digital payments sector of India a significant boost. The digital payment sector of India
experienced a unpredicted growth since Demonetization in November 2016. Digital wallet companies in India has
shown a growth of 271% for a total value of US$2.8 Billion i.e Rs 191 crores. A Google- BCG Report had
estimated that the digital payment industry in India will experience a growth of US $ 500 billion by 2020.
WHAT IS DIGITAL PAYMENT?
Digital Payment means when any goods or services are purchased through the use of various electronic modes of
payments which means there is no use of physical cash or cheques in digital payment. Now-a-days people use
Digital Payments more is because Digital payment methods are easier and more convenient and they also provide
customers the flexibility to make the payment from anywhere at any time which proves as a good alternative to the
traditional methods of payment and which fastens the transaction cycles.
10 Types of Digital Payment methods in India:-
• Banking Cards- Debit/Credit / Prepaid Cards.
• USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data).
• AEPS (Aadhar Enabled Payment System).
• UPI Mobile (Unified Payments Interface).
• Mobile Wallets.
• Bank Pre-paid Cards.
• POS Terminals.
• Internet Banking.
• Mobile Banking.
• BHIM App (Bharat Interface for Money).
 OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
• To investigate and understand the facilitating factors of digital financial services
adoption and continuous use among people.
• To investigate and understand the pausing factors of digital financial services
adoption and continuous use among people.
• To investigate the acceleration of financial inclusion through digital financial
services.
• To investigate whether digital financial services adoption assists people to access
wider and different financial services.
• To investigate whether digital financial services adoption and usage help people to
meet specific financial needs.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Research design explains the nature of the study and the type of data used for the research study. This study is a
cross-sectional exploratory and descriptive research. A cross-section study means data has been obtained at only
one point in time for the assessment of the research hypothesis. Exploratory research design can be used where a
research problem is not defined precisely to better understand the research problem or to explore the factors
causing the research problem. Exploratory research also is employed when researching phenomena at the initial
stage. The objective of the study is to inquire about the determining factors of Digital Financial Services among
people, which examines
Data Collection:
Data will be collected through a structured survey administered to a representative sample of the target population.
The survey will include questions on sociodemographic characteristics, technological access, financial literacy,
trust and security concerns, availability and accessibility of DFS, and social influence.

Data Analysis:

Data analysis will be conducted using statistical techniques such as regression analysis, factor analysis, and
structural equation modeling. The analysis will aim to identify the significant determinants of DFS adoption and to
determine the strength and direction of their relationships.

Sample Size

This the sample size of 250 respondents was able to evaluate the reliable result.
Simple area : Lucknow City
 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Que-1 Which type of account you have in Bank?

Type of Account
Salary, 8.00%
Fix Deposit,
0.80%
Current, 5.20%

Saving, 86.00%

Interpretation:
Out of 250 respondent that we take for our survey 86% have a saving account, 5% have a
current account, 8% have a salary account and 0.8 % of our respondent have a fix deposit
account in the bank. It means that the bank has a very good amount of saving account customer
compare to the other account.
 Que 2 How often do you visit the bank?

Visit of the Bank

Rarly, 10.00% Daily, 9.60%

Ones in a
month, 22.40% Weekly,
32.40%

Two time in
month, 25.60%

Interpretation:
Out of 250 respondent that we take for our survey 32.4% are visit the bank weekly, 25.6% of our
respondent are visit the bank two time in a month, 9.6 % of our respondent are daily visit the
bank, 22.4 % of our respondent are visit the bank ones in a month and 10% of our respondent
are visit the bank rarely. Visit of the bank is depends on the transaction of the customer with
bank.
 FINDINGS

This research study was undertaken to investigate the people's perceptions, motivations, and
hindering factors of Digital Financial Services and to investigate the impact of the adoption of
Digital Financial Services on Digital Financial Inclusion. This section discussed four parts of the
survey instrument.

Majorly people are exposed to saving accounts and loan accounts rather than other financial
services.

From the technology experience section , all the respondents had usage experience of smartphone
and mobile phone internet. Very few people had computer experience which is also a reason for the
low and slow rate of adoption of Digital Financial Services.

Digital Financial Services adoption was positively influenced by subjective norms, relative
advantage, ease of use, and self-efficacy. Whereas Digital Financial Services adoption was
negatively influenced by perceived risk.

Digital Financial Inclusion (continuous use) was significantly determined by ease of use, subjective
norms, and relative advantage. Further, Digital Financial Inclusion was insignificantly determined
by perceived risk and self-efficacy.
 LIMITATION

• Like any other research study, this study also suffers from different limitations.

• The research model was designed with a total of seven variables. Five exogenous variables –ease

of use, relative advantage, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and perceived risk were the very

limited number of determinants. There were many other antecedents of the adoption and usage of

digital financial services.

• Samples of the study were recruited using convenience and snowball sampling methods, which

were non-probabilistic sampling techniques. All the respondents were belonging to the Lucknow

city. Hence, the results suffer from generalizability.

• The study’s target population was the current users of digital financial services, which may not

represent the whole rural population. The findings of the study might be different for potential and
 CONCLUSION
By shedding light on the determinants of adoption of digital financial services, this study aims to
contribute to the ongoing discourse on financial inclusion, technology adoption, and economic
development. The insights generated from this research are expected to inform policymakers,
financial institutions, and development agencies in designing targeted interventions and initiatives
to promote the uptake of DFS and enhance access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable financial
services for all segments of society.