Authors: Anjali Kumari, Unnati Supriya, Supriya Singh, Aakash Deep Lakra, Suraj Dhanwar, Animesh Anand, Dr. Anirban Gupta, Dr. Ajay Kumar
Abstract: Digital payments have played a crucial role in increasing financial inclusion in the country. It has revolutionised the payment systems, reduced the burden of cash transactions, and enhanced the credibility and convenience of making payments. Digital banking is well established and adopted in the metro-cities; however, its adoption remains comparatively limited in non-metropolitan cities like Ranchi. The study focuses on understanding the impact of digital banking adoption on the customers of the State Bank of India from Ranchi, Jharkhand. The study uses an analytical and empirical approach to understand whether digital banking adoption has a significant impact on the financial inclusion of the customers of the State Bank of India. The study has used the Simple Linear Regression model to find the relationship between the variables, where Digital Banking Adoption (DBA) is taken as the independent variable and Financial Inclusion (FI) as the dependent variable. This study is based on the findings of primary data that was collected using a structured questionnaire based on a 5-point Likert scale from 180 respondents from the Ranchi district. The result of hypothesis testing reveals a strong and positive significance, where the model explains 49.3% (approximately) of the variation, and the p-value, which is 0.000, shows a strong and statistically positive significance between digital banking adoption and financial inclusion. Therefore, we accept the alternative hypothesis. The study concludes that digital banking adoption plays a major role in promoting financial inclusion in the Ranchi district. The findings and recommendations of the study provide important insights and implications for the policy makers and financial institutions, which may be taken to encourage financial inclusion at all levels in Ranchi.
