Banking Coverage India 2026: India has created a new history in the field of financial inclusion. The Central Government has informed the Parliament that the country has achieved Near Universal Banking Coverage, under which banking services have reached 99.92% of the inhabited villages of the country.
While answering a question in Parliament, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Choudhary shared this data based on the data uploaded by banks on Jan Dhan Darshak App.
See the expansion of banking network in figures
The main objective of the government has been to provide at least one banking outlet i.e. bank branch, business correspondent or India Post Payments Bank center within a radius of 5 kilometers of every village in the country. According to government claims, out of total 6,01,328 villages in the country, 6,00,868 villages have been connected with banking outlets within a radius of 5 km. According to the data till July 17, 2026, more than 1.81 lakh bank branches are functioning in the country. Apart from this, more than 17.36 lakh business correspondents are deployed to provide door-to-door services in rural areas. At the same time, 1.65 lakh India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) centers providing banking services through Indian Post are active.
Jan Dhan accounts crossed Rs 58.77 crore
Giving information about the progress of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the Minister of State for Finance said that by July 17, 2026, the total number of Jan Dhan accounts across the country has reached 58.77 crore. With this, the total amount deposited in these Jan Dhan accounts has increased to ₹ 3,12,414 crore. This figure shows that even people living in remote areas of the country are now keeping their savings safe by joining the formal banking system.
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Easy rules of RBI for opening bank branches in villages
To further improve banking access in rural and remote areas, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given permission to commercial banks, small finance banks, payments banks and regional rural banks to open branches anywhere without prior permission. However, for this, an essential condition of RBI is that it will be mandatory to open at least 25% of the total new branches opened by banks in unbanked rural areas.
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Source: ndtv.in
