• DR. SABIHA SHAREEF

Reaching the Unreached through Business Correspondents – An Effective Marketing Strategy of RBI Dr. Sabiha Shareef Assistant Professor in Commerce, Telangana Mahila Vishwavidyalayam, Koti, Hydertabad, Telangana State Email ID : sabihashareef18@gmail.com 9290074714 Abstract The recent Global Findex Report of 2022 states that the worldwide account ownership has reached 76% by 2021 from 51% in 2011.As regards India the percentage of adults having an account has increased from 71% in 2017 to 78% by 2021. The report clearly points out that 22% of people in India are still not having a Bank Account and in India though the percentage of usage of accounts after the pandemic, for digital payments has grown by 35% more of what was used earlier still there is a great need to make improvements in the usage of accounts as India’s share of inactive accounts is very high and there is a need to promote digital payments because still 160 million banked adults continue to pay utility bills in cash (35% of accounts are inactive). There is still a large unfinished agenda of financial inclusion in terms of deepening penetration of banking services and developing a suitable service marketing approach for the banks so that they focus on not only customer acquisition but also customer retention through the BC Model initiated by the RBI in 2006 to create an intensive network of village level touch points. Building out agent networks will be necessary to overcome challenges in reaching excluded populations. The present paper is taken up to understand the services marketing strategy adopted by RBI which is helping in not only opening the accounts for the poor but also indulging in proactive sales of financial products with the trained personnel approaching customers directly in the name of Business Correspondents who are providing them door to door services for deepening banking penetration and thereby helping in achieving the goal of financial inclusion. This study makes use of secondary data to measure the outreach of the BCs and to suggest the marketing strategy of the banks, that can be followed by the BCs to contribute positively to the ethical cause of attaining inclusive growth.

Business Correspondents; Financial Inclusion; Service Marketing Strategy; Customer Acquisition and Retention; Digital Payments.

"Reaching the Unreached through Business Correspondents - An Effective Marketing Strategy of RBI ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.10, Issue 2, page no.a134-a142, February-2023, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2302019.pdf

"Reaching the Unreached through Business Correspondents - An Effective Marketing Strategy of RBI ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.10, Issue 2, page no. ppa134-a142, February-2023, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2302019.pdf