Reserve Bank of India's FI-Index shows better access to financial services

The RBI had announced the introduction of such an index in its bi-monthly monetary policy statement on April 7

Going by the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index), which the central bank introduced on Tuesday, the extensive work done to improve access to financial services appears to be paying off.

According to the RBI’s assessment, the FI-Index for the period ended March 2021 was 53.9 as against 43.4 for the period ended March 2017. The central bank will publish the index annually in July.

The index will be a single value between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 shows full financial inclusion. And, it will have three broad parameters with weights — access