Financial Inclusion Index 2023

Current Context: The RBI has recently released the Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) for the year ending March 2023, which shows an improvement of 3.7 points from the previous year. The FI-Index for March 2023 stands at 60.1, compared to 56.4 in March 2022.

• The FI-Index is a composite measure of the extent of financial inclusion in the country, based on three sub-indices: Access, Usage and Quality.
• The Access sub-index reflects the availability and affordability of financial services and products, such as bank accounts, ATMs, BCs, POS terminals, etc.
• The Usage sub-index captures the extent and frequency of use of financial services and products, such as deposits, credits, payments, insurance, pension, etc.
• The Quality sub-index measures the adequacy and suitability of financial services and products, such as financial literacy, consumer protection, grievance redressal, etc. According to the RBI, the FI-Index is useful for tracking the progress of financial inclusion policies and initiatives over time.

Question:

Q.1 What is the name of the composite measure of the extent of financial inclusion in India, released by the RBI?
a. Financial Inclusion Score (FI-Score)
b. Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index)
c. Financial Inclusion Ratio (FI-Ratio)
d. Financial Inclusion Measure (FI-Measure)