In 10 charts: Where the Modi government's biggest bets of each year stand today
“Election Pitch" data series, we pick one significant reform from each year the current government was in power, and check where things stand now. A decade after its launch, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has over 520 million accounts with a total balance of around ₹2.32 trillion. The scheme provides a zero-balance bank account, a RuPay debit card and ₹1-lakh accident insurance.
Despite early scepticism, it has largely been successful in providing formal banking to unbanked individuals, particularly in rural India, and forms one of the three pillars of India’s digital public infrastructure (the others being Aadhaar and ‘mobile’). However, there are some humbling reality checks that warrant attention. By December 2023, nearly a fifth of these accounts had not seen any customer-initiated transactions for over two years (though that’s similar to the overall banking sector, according to the government).
The accident insurance component also has a sketchy record, with nearly a third of the claims being rejected since the scheme’s inception, according to data shared in the Rajya Sabha. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) aims to provide financial assistance for pucca housing for poor households. Its urban component (PMAY-U) was launched in 2015 as a demand-driven scheme, and relies on proposals by states.
The rural piece (PMAY-G), which came a year later, aimed to build 29.5 million pucca houses in two phases. Under PMAY-U, nearly 12 million houses had been sanctioned and 8 million of them built as of February. PMAY-R has completed 88% of its target.
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