Role of financial inclusion in poverty alleviation in Odisha

Objectives: This study dwells on the role of financial inclusion in poverty alleviation. The alleviation of poverty is implemented by combining direct tools and indirect tools. Traditional solutions have not been as effective and sufficient to tackle poverty. Indirect tools include improving access to credit, promoting savings to the poor. Methods/Statistical analysis: We use district level branch banking and development indicators data for 30 districts of Odisha during the discrete period 1992 to 2011, since official poverty data for district levels are not released. Findings: When controlled for PDDP, number of bank branches plays a significant role to reduce poverty. We find that an increase of Rs. 10,000/- in PDDP can cause a fall in poverty by 4%, an increase of 10% in Rice Yield can cause fall in poverty by 1.5%, whereas, an additional 100 number of bank branches can reduce poverty by 4.7% in the districts. Application/Improvements: The results of this analysis could go further to achieve the millennium development goals in few years. Novelty: We find the relative ranking of the coefficients of real sector and finance sector variables, that when controlled for other variables, e.g., Rice Yield, No. of Branches and PDDP to negatively impact poverty rates. Keywords: inclusion; poverty alleviation; banking; NDDP; branches