Close X
Thursday, November 28, 2024
ADVT 
India

Over 53 crore Jan Dhan accounts opened in last 10 years: FM Sitharaman

Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 Aug, 2024 01:09 PM
  • Over 53 crore Jan Dhan accounts opened in last 10 years: FM Sitharaman

New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday that a total of 53.13 crore Jan Dhan accounts for the poor have been opened in the last 10 years with deposits worth Rs 2.3 lakh crore.

Talking to reporters on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Sitharaman said, "Our target is to open more than 3 crore PMJDY accounts during the current financial year."

She said that the PMJDY is one of the biggest financial inclusion initiatives in the world.

The Finance Minister said that the average bank balance per account in March 2015 was Rs 1,065, which has now increased to Rs 4,352. Around 80 per cent of the accounts are active, she added.

As many as 66.6 per cent of Jan Dhan accounts are opened in rural and semi-urban areas 29.56 crore (55.6 per cent) belong to women account holders.

Sitharaman said: “PMJDY accounts are used on a large scale. People also deposit money in it. However, this scheme allows zero balance accounts and only 8.4 per cent of the accounts have zero balance.”

When the Modi government first came to power about 10 years ago, it had set a target of providing financial and banking services to every citizen. For this, zero-balance bank accounts were opened in the banks of the poorest of the poor under ‘Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojana’ launched on August 28, 2014.

From MNREGA salaries to Ujjwala scheme subsidy and providing money to common people during COVID-19, this scheme has played a major role in the success of the Modi government. Today, after 10 years, billions of rupees of common people have been deposited in these accounts, she added.

The Finance Minister said as of August 14, 2024, there were more than 173 crore operative CASA (current and savings) accounts in the country, including over 53 crore operative PMJDY accounts.

She said that a large number of normal savings bank accounts are also opened by banks, adding that new measures like e-KYC and video KYC have made the account opening process paperless, eliminating the need to visit a branch or banking correspondent to open a bank account.

"We believe that most of the adults in the country have been covered with bank accounts and our focus is to cover leftover adults and neo-adults," Sitharaman said.

The JAM Trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) has given a boost to the DBT programme and expanded its coverage from partial to ubiquitous, the finance ministry said and added the PMJDY scheme has done very well in rural/semi-urban areas of the country.

Today, 99.95 per cent of all inhabited villages have access to banking facilities within a 5-km radius through banking touch points (including bank branches, ATMs, banking correspondents (BCs), and Indian Post Payment Banks), according to a finance ministry statement.

 

MORE India ARTICLES

Delhi HC dismisses Sisodia's bail pleas in excise policy cases by CBI and ED

Delhi HC dismisses Sisodia's bail pleas in excise policy cases by CBI  and ED
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday denied bail to AAP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the alleged excise policy scam cases. A bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said that the applicant failed to pass the triple test for grant of bail in the corruption case and the twin conditions required under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

Delhi HC dismisses Sisodia's bail pleas in excise policy cases by CBI and ED

Everybody should go to space, says Captain Gopichand after touring space

Everybody should go to space, says Captain Gopichand after touring space
Everybody should go to space, said Captain Gopichand Thotakura after becoming the first Indian ever to tour the edge of space on Blue Origin's seventh crewed flight mission on Sunday. "It was amazing... you have to see it with your eyes," said the Vijayawada-born pilot, after coming out of the space capsule.

Everybody should go to space, says Captain Gopichand after touring space

Wanted gangster killed in encounter

Wanted gangster killed in encounter
A notorious gangster, also a member of the Himanshu Bhau gang, was killed following an encounter with Delhi Police’s Special Cell in the national capital, an official said on Friday. The accused was identified as Ajay Singroha a.k.a Goli, a resident of Ritoli village, Rohtak district in Haryana.

Wanted gangster killed in encounter

ED files 8th charge sheet in excise policy case; names AAP, Kejriwal as accused

ED files 8th charge sheet in excise policy case; names AAP, Kejriwal as accused
On Thursday, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S.V. Raju, representing the ED, informed the Supreme Court that a prosecution complaint against AAP and its national convenor was in the pipeline and would be lodged soon before the special court. ASG Raju made the submission as the agency opposed CM Kejriwal’s plea filed before the apex court against his arrest in the case by the ED.

ED files 8th charge sheet in excise policy case; names AAP, Kejriwal as accused

4 killed in Rajasthan accident

4 killed in Rajasthan accident
Four people were killed while 13 others injured when a bus hit a truck on the National Highway in Halena village in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district. The incident occurred when the bus, belonging to Aligarh depot of Uttar Pradesh Roadways, which was proceeding towards Jaipur, hit a truck while trying to overtake a vehicle, one of the passengers said.

4 killed in Rajasthan accident

328 candidates, including 26 women, in fray for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab

328 candidates, including 26 women, in fray for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab
A total of 328 candidates, including 26 women, will be in the fray for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, 50 more than 2019, Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C. said on Friday. The state will go to the polls in a single phase on June 1, the seventh and final phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

328 candidates, including 26 women, in fray for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab