How technology has created new avenues for digital financial inclusion

1. How technology has created new avenues for digital Financial inclusion? Financial inclusion is a significant driver of economic growth. When you make it digital, it becomes a real game - changer. When financial inclusion is digital, it is simple to implement and grow. The world had been steadily heading toward digitalisation, but the pandemic caused a shift in gears, greatly speeding up the process. Because of the timing of demonetisation and the subsequent push for a "cashlesssociety," the impact of digitalization has been particularly visible in India. India, with all of its magnificent dichotomies, has been an early adopter of technology. With the combination of cutting-edge technologies and the desire to bring our populace into the financial mainstream, India is ready to offer Financial Inclusion at scale. Enormous swaths of society remain cut off from the advantages of digitalization and financial innovation, serving as a passive audience for conventional financial institutions. Not to mention the millions who are still unbanked and entirely isolated from the economic mainstream. Equitable capital and resource mobilisation can give feasible solutions for poverty reduction as well as financial liberation, liberating a substantial portion of our people from the daily battles of bare existence and allowing them to expand their wings and soar towards a more affluent future. Digital Access To finance will guarantee that the oppressed and underprivileged are recognised and have access to, transfer, and increase their wealth. With mobile phones and internet access, as well as a slew of cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Big Data, there is enormous potential to reaching out to the unbanked and underbanked. Digital Financial Inclusion will expand possibilities and improve lives, and the FinTech industry will be critical in fostering and spreading this ecosystem. Digitalization In India, the number of online users is predicted to rise by 45 percent over the next five years, reaching 900 million by 2025, up from roughly 622 million in 2020. The data appear to imply that businesses will have a greater digital presence than a physical one in the nearest term, and many have already begun delivering services online, allowing them to decrease costs and increase efficiency while expanding reach. The same is true for financial institutions and banks. "A digital rupee would be launched in India during fiscal year 2022-23," India's Finance Minister stated when delivering the Union Budget. The RBI reinforced this sentiment, stating that it will eventually start working on the "phased implementation" of its own virtual currency. Banks no longer need to rely just on a physical presence; they may now deliver all of their services online, either through Fintech businesses or by establishing their own in-house platforms. Customers benefit from digitalization since it allows for direct transactions, credit access, utility payments, and other services without the requirement for a third-party intermediary or the need to visit a physical branch or outlet. Artificial Intelligence AI algorithms are evolving on a daily basis, and investment in this field are expanding. It is altering the consumer financial services sector as well as customers' interactions with the financial services environment. Although AI is not widely used, several businesses have begun to integrate it. As businesses go digital, data will accumulate quickly. AI assists businesses in using raw data, analysing

2. it, and recommending solutions that allow them to make educated decisions and remain ahead of the curve. Furthermore, Ml Algorithms can construct credit scores, which will increase financial institutions' capacity to lend to consumers with little credit history. Blockchain Distributed digital ledgers are referred to as blockchains. Consensus procedures are used in these ledgers to generate a single source of truth. Because of encryption mechanisms, recorded data cannot be changed, making the digital ledger unchangeable. Because of these properties, blockchain is an appealing technology for carrying out transactions for parties with varying interests, such as lenders or borrowers. Increasing rural mobile banking allows enterprises to supply financial services using blockchain technology. Robotic process automation RPA also assists financial institutions in lowering costs and advancing the goal of financial inclusion in a variety of ways. RPA helps banks to create compliance reports automatically and track or identify fraudulent activities. It is also utilised in client onboarding to capture data from KYC papers using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. RPA is also being utilised for opening the account, making the procedure significantly more efficient than the manual one because it removes data transcription mistakes between the system and the customer. It also enables companies to automate the mortgage lending process, which includes loan start, financial status analysis, paperwork, automated client support, and so on. Conclusion Financial growth accurately reflects economic success. Inclusion entails having access to financial possibilities. This inclusion taps into a population's real potential, making them economically informed and powerful. People who have access to their money tend to live life more confidently, while those who have access to credit tend to be more industrious, ambitious, and competitive.