This text is concerned with the increasingly important and problematic area of financial exclusion, broadly defined as the inability and/or reluctance of particular societal groups to access mainstream financial services. This has emerged as a major international policy issue. There is growing...

India's rural households continued to remain financially excluded prominently compared to urban households particularly with respect to their access to institutional credit. Nearly half (44%) of the credit requirements of rural households is still met through non-institutional sources of finance...