Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana : A New Horizon in Microfinance

Economic development of a nation can be achieved only when every section of the society have an access to the formal financial services and comes within the ambit of formal financial
system. To serve this purpose, Microfinance has emerged as an important tool for providing financial services to the low-income households and underprivileged society for their employment and development. Microfinance is the provision of financial service such as credit, saving and insurance for poor and rural households. Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi had announced the scheme “Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana” (PMJDY) on Independence Day in his address to the nation on 15th August 2014, PMJDY is a comprehensive financial inclusion programme, having the target of opening of 7.5 crore new accounts within five months with insurance and pension services and as targeted , record 1.5 crore bank accounts have
been opened across the country, On the inaugural day, it was the largest implementation of any scheme on a single day perhaps anywhere in the world. Pradhan mantri jan dhan yojana made a world record in opening accounts in one week.
The Guinness book said that “most bank accounts opened in one week as part of the Financial Inclusion Campaign in 18,096,130 and was achieved by the Department of Financial Services, Government of India from August 23 to 29, 2014. The Jan Dhan Yojana is set to come to the rescue of the farmers and poor persons and it will ensure that banks to work towards expansion of insurance and credit services to low income
households, which so far have not been included in the country’s financial system. The scheme is aimed at providing bank accounts, insurance cover and a debit card to all the citizens of the country. Taking another leap forward now Mudra bank is launched by Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi on 8th April 2015 for the expansion and success of small business owners and rural
entrepreneurs, who were so far dependent on the moneylenders and informal sector for accessing loans and advances. This innovation can creates impressive growth in the society and contribute in gross domestic products. The present paper is an
attempt to analyse the role of microfinance services and Jan Dhan Yojana in the development and inclusive growth of the society by providing financial strength to them. Extensive literature review is undertaken and various government
and RBI reports have been analysed for the purpose, it can be concluded in the end that Jan Dhan Yojana can provide much need thrust to the vast section of the unbanked population for
financially viability, sustainable development. PMJDY record in account opening phenomenon in urban and rural areas of India. If we take proper implementation process definitely, make changes in the society for upliftment of poor rural and urban households without any difficult process. However, there are certain challenges in the growth path of implementation and regulation. In the end, we have also proposed some suggestions
that can instrumental in improving the implementation strategy of the PMJDY.