Independent Research and Policy Advocacy

The winding road from financial access to financial outcomes

India’s financial inclusion numbers are often presented as a policy success story. The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Financial Inclusion Index increased from 64.2 in 2024 to 67 in 2025. Bank accounts, credit, digital payments, and insurance products have all scaled significantly over the past decade. By nearly every access metric that is traditionally tracked, the story looks like unambiguous progress.

Need a more flexible AePS environment

While the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) has emerged as the foundational technology enabling cash-in cash-out (CICO) across the country, efforts by bad actors to defraud banking customers through it continue to be a pressing concern