FinTech and Financial Inclusion in India: Trends, Evidence and Future Research Directions

FinTech has become an important driver of India's financial transformation. Digital payments, mobile banking, digital identity, digital lending and technology-enabled financial services have significantly expanded the channels through which individuals and enterprises can interact with the formal financial system. However, the evidence does not support the simplistic conclusion that greater digitalization automatically produces complete financial inclusion. The central finding of this review is: FinTech has made financial services more accessible, but accessibility is only the first stage of financial inclusion. The next research and policy challenge is to determine whether individuals use these services regularly, safely and productively, and whether such use improves their financial resilience and well-being. India's experience therefore suggests a transition from an access-oriented financial inclusion paradigm toward an outcome-oriented FinTech inclusion paradigm. The future research agenda should consequently focus on the chain: FinTech capability → adoption → actual usage → quality of financial services → financial inclusion → financial well-being. Such an approach can make the FinTech literature more relevant to Commerce, Finance, Banking and Development Studies while providing policymakers with evidence that goes beyond transaction counts and account-ownership statistics.

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