ET Financial Inclusion Summit: DBT scheme’s proved to be a boon for crores of Indians SECTIONS ET Financial Inclusion Summit: DBT scheme’s proved to be a boon for crores of IndiansET Bureau Last Updated: Jul 19, 2021, 09:01 AM IST Share Synopsis Digital adoption was also accelerated by the pandemic as withdrawals by DBT beneficiaries increased two-thirds last fiscal. iStock India took a giant leap toward financial inclusion by harnessing technology to directly transfer federal welfare benefits to individual bank accounts, bringing about 300 million of its marginalised citizens within the ambit of formal financing. The Aadhaar-based Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system has brought banking access in some form to about 80% of India’s population by 2017, up from 50% in 2014. Plans are afoot to provide DBT beneficiaries access to a larger bouquet of financial services, said the panellists at a plenary session at the ET Financial Inclusion Summit.