Data Tracker: India is far away from being a cashless economy, says survey

Payments banks, which offer electronic remittances, financial advisory, online banking and more, offer immediate value to unbanked consumers

With companies increasingly taking the digital route to expand into small towns in India, it has become even more critical to bring the unbanked into the fold. In this context, a recent survey by Nielsen India finds that there is a long distance to travel for companies that want to convert rural India into a cashless consumer economy. But payments banks are transforming the landscape by changing the way migrant workers remit money and could hold the key to the future

• In India, just 63% of adults have access to the formal financial system. Financial inclusion in rural India, which houses