True to their name

Click on graphic

The number of zero-balance accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has seen a steady fall since the financial inclusion programme was launched last September. On September 9 this year, of the total accounts under PMJDY, 43 per cent had zero balance in these, whereas, in September 2014, 76 per cent accounts had zero balance.

However, while the PMJDY has achieved almost 100 per cent household coverage across all states, it has not been able to maintain the same momentum when it comes to linking banking accounts with Aadhaar cards. The linkage is needed to plug leakages in the government's welfare schemes. As the map shows, the states which are most backward on socio-economic parameters, have moved the slowest in linking bank accounts with Aadhaar numbers.