<div>The Narendra Modi’s government’s Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has been a resounding success. Aimed to boost financial inclusion, it made it to the Guinness Book of World Records in a short span — about five months after its launch in August 2014. The idea behind is to open bank accounts to get the unbanked in to the formal banking system – to pave the way for the government's ambitious plan to transfer annual subsidy of around Rs 51,029 crore directly to account holders and also plug leakages.</div><div> </div><div>Deposits of Rs 21,000 crore have been opened under the PMJDY, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. The good news is that zero-balance accounts under the scheme have reduced to 46.93 per cent to July 2015 from 76 per cent from September 2014. That’s a big positive as one of the criticisms was that there was hardly any monies in these accounts – that it was merely a statistical entry.</div><div> </div><div>On Tuesdsay, North Block said officials from the Ministry of Petroleum, Ministry of Rural Development also join in to sort out the issues with banks with regard to Direct Benefit Transfer ( DBT) schemes implemented by them.</div><div> </div><div><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/Pradhan-Mantri-Jan---Dhan-Yojana-LRG.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 246px; margin: 1px;"></div>
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Raghu Mohan is an award-winning senior journalist with 22 years of experience. He has worked for BW Businessworld since December 2006, and is currently its Deputy Editor. His area of expertise is banking – commercial, investment, and the regulatory. Previous stints include those at The Financial Express and Business India.