Summary of this article
Jan Dhan accounts cross 59 crore, widening banking access.
MUDRA loan sanctions top Rs 43 lakh crore.
Sitharaman hails UPI’s 2,400 crore monthly transactions nationwide.
More than 59 crore accounts have been opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, while loans sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana have crossed Rs 43 lakh crore, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has stated on Sunday.
Speaking in Bhubaneswar, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's inauguration of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) new data centre and Cybersecurity Training Institution, Sitharaman also hailed the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which processes more than 2,400 crore transactions a month, and nearly 80 crore transactions daily, emphasising its position as the world’s largest real-time payment system.
Jan Dhan Accounts Support Direct Benefit Transfers
Sitharaman has also hailed the expansion of banking access through the Jan Dhan scheme, which has brought more people into the formal banking system. The accounts also allow the government to transfer money directly to beneficiaries, helping reduce leakages in the distribution of funds.
She noted that the government’s financial inclusion efforts extend beyond bank accounts to credit, insurance and pension services, giving people access to a wider range of formal financial products.
MUDRA Loans Support Small Entrepreneurs
Under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana, more than Rs 43 lakh crore has been sanctioned through over 60 crore collateral-free loan accounts for micro and small entrepreneurs.
Sitharaman mentioned that many borrowers had repaid their loans and taken additional credit to fund their businesses. Women account for more than 65 per cent of the scheme’s beneficiaries.
The government has also extended credit to street vendors through the PM SVANidhi scheme. Nearly 1.2 crore loans have been disbursed under the programme.
She also mentioned the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Atal Pension Yojana. These schemes provide life insurance, accident insurance and pension benefits at low cost.
New RBI Campus To House Critical Payment Systems
The RBI’s new Bhubaneswar campus will house key payment systems, including the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) network.
Its training institute and research wing will focus on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI) and data centre technologies. Sitharaman also referred to the government’s Purvodaya policy, which focuses on the development of eastern India, and thanked the workers and engineers involved in building the campus.
In a recent social media post on X (formerly Twitter), the finance minister also noted that the campus is close to the Sun Temple at Konark. Referring to the Aditya Hridayam Stotram from the Ramayana, she drew a parallel between the Sun’s role in sustaining life and the RBI’s responsibility for safeguarding India’s financial systems and supporting the flow of payments across the economy.
