New Delhi, March 30 (IANS) Nearly 99.92 per cent of inhabited villages in India now have a banking outlet within a five‑kilometre radius, the Parliament was informed on Monday.

Further, 100 per cent villages in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli are covered with banking outlets within a radius of 5 kms, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The Jan Dhan Darshak App, a Geographic Information System (GIS) monitoring tool, shows banks, business correspondents and India Post Payments Bank outlets covering almost the entire country, he added, as per a Finance Ministry statement.

The app enables geographic monitoring of banking infrastructure, he said.

Major impediments in the augmentation of banking infrastructure are the lack of connectivity & infrastructure, along with the non-availability of suitable premises.

As per RBI guidelines, rolling out of banking outlets in uncovered areas is a continuous process looked after by the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) or Union Territory Level Bankers Committee (UTLBC).

The process is being done in consultation with the state government concerned, member banks and other stakeholders, the minister said.

Banks, inter alia, consider proposals for opening banking outlets in the light of the RBI's instructions, their business plans and commercial viability. To further assess the viability of opening a banking outlet, banks carry out surveys as required.

India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) is a bank under the Department of Posts, fully owned by the Centre. It leverages the postal network comprising 1.65 lakh post offices and 3 lakh postal employees for delivering banking services.

It has been conferred the ‘Digital Payments Award 2024-25’ in recognition of its outstanding contribution to expanding digital payments and financial inclusion across the country.

--IANS

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