A study on the effectiveness of the Financial Inclusion program in Jammu and Kashmir: Initiatives by the major banks Suhail Qasim Mir 1 , Ishaq Ahmad Bhat 2 , Faisal Nazir Zargar 3 1 MBA student, CMS, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 2 MBA student, CMS, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 3 MBA student, CMS, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi suhailmir24@gmail.com 1 ,ishaqhassan9@gmail.com 2 , f_nazir@ymail.com 3 Keywords: Financial Inclusion, J&K bank, Microfinance, Inclusive growth Abstract Easy access to sources of finance i.e., Financial Inclusion is believed to be an important tool to poverty alleviation and inclusive growth. Financial inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial services, at affordable costs, to sections of disadvantaged and low income segments of society. Following the recommendation of Khan Commission-2004, various reformative measures have been taken by Reserve Bank of India and Government of India to promote the extent of Financial Inclusion in India. To achieve maximum financial inclusion, banks throughout the country scaled up their initiatives to achieve their targets for Financial Inclusion and have succeeded in doing so to a large extent. However, in Jammu and Kashmir the results are not up to the mark. The credit-deposit ratio is far below the national benchmark. Jammu and Kashmir figures among the states where financial inclusion is below average. It has a CRISIL Inclusix score of 36.9 compared to the national score of 42.8. It is in this direction that the present study has been carried out in order to look into the various initiatives taken up by Bankers in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The present paper also attempts to look into the progress of financial inclusion in the State. It further attempts to reveal the current status of financial inclusion in India and achievements made so far. Introduction: The size of the financially excluded population in the world is enormous: according to the United Nations, approximately 2.5 billion people around the globe lack access to formal financial services. – such as a bank account, credit, insurance, a safe place to keep savings and a secure and efficient means to receive social benefit payments – through a registered financial institution (UN, 2007; Chibba, 2008). Although this problem is universal, the extent of financial exclusion has assumed more horrific dimensions in developing countries like in India. In India almost half of the country is unbanked. India has the highest number of households (145 million) excluded from Banking. There is only one bank branch per 14,000 people. Just 18 per cent have debit cards and less than 2 per cent have credit cards (Source:   - 2011). So, to cope up with the issue of inclusive growth, the Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India have been making concerted efforts to promote financial inclusion as one of the important national objectives of the country. Some of the major efforts made in the last five decades include - nationalization of banks, building up of robust branch network of scheduled commercial banks, co-operatives and regional rural banks, introduction of mandated priority sector lending targets, lead bank scheme, formation of self-help groups, permitting BCs/BFs to be appointed by banks to provide door step delivery of banking services, zero balance BSBD accounts, etc. The fundamental objective of all these initiatives is to reach the large sections of the hitherto financially excluded Indian population. In response to the initiatives put in by Govt. of India and RBI, CRISIL Inclusix score, for India, rose from 35.4 in 2009 to 42.8 in 2013 (up by 7.4). In Jammu and Kashmir, however, the situation is still grim in spite of the various initiatives put up by both the govt. and the bankers’ community in the state. The present study is an attempt to look into the various strategies that banks in the state have employed to reach the disadvantaged set of population in the State and to briefly analyse the progress made so far.