Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Financial inclusion is a high priority agenda of the Odisha Government. It’s a process by which Government ensures access to appropriate financial products and services for the vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low-income groups at an affordable cost in a fair and transparent manner by mainstream institutional players.
For the state of Odisha, Financial inclusion is still a critical challenge since banking penetration in the state is quite low. Though there is an increase in the banking network in the state over the last 5 years, the same is not uniformly distributed across all districts.
Odisha has 6794 GPs, out of which 2630 GPs are covered by 5695 Brick & Mortar branches. Rest 4160 GPs are covered by BCs / CSPs & IPPB Access Points. There are 4 GPs in the State without any banking touch points.
Even though the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of banking network in the State is 2.58% during the last 5 years against the CAGR of 1.55% at national level, the availability of brick and mortar branches across the state is uneven.
