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This study aims to measure and further compare the countries in terms of the achievement in the degree of financial inclusion over the study period and between income groups considering 26 nations from Asia for the period 2013-2017.

While measuring the degree of financial inclusion, the study prepares an index using weighted arithmetic mean and the inverse of the Euclidean distance method. Further, comparison between the study period and between the income groups has been made using the dependent samples t-test as well as the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and independent samples t-test, respectively.

The study extends empirical insights by laying out the ranks for the countries considered for each of the study periods individually as well as in terms of mean financial inclusion scores for the study period. Further, comparison in terms of mean financial inclusion scores shows significant differences between the income groups, whereas the differences between the study periods turn out to be non-significant.

Less availability of intended variables over time restricts the predictive capability of sketching the phenomena in a true sense and claims further an exhaustive research to pursue in the future.

With the declining trend except for 2016-2017 in the achievement of financial inclusion scores over time, the study suggests emphasizing the initiatives targeted to include the excluded within the ambit of the formal financial system, which somehow seems unstable.

The novelty of the study lies in the portrayal of a measure that seems representative of the scale for development with deeper insight.

An inclusive financial system is essential to develop the country’s economy. A massive shift in financial inclusion was observed by the initiative of government to include financially excluded into the formal financial system by launching Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in 2014. This paper aims to attempt to examine the efficiency of public sector banks in financial inclusion during pre and post introduction of PMJDY.

The data envelopment analysis is used to measure the efficiency of the banks towards financial inclusion for the periods, 2010–2011 to 2013–2014 as pre-introduction and 2014–2015 to 2017–2018 as post-introduction phase. For this study, supply-side parameters of financial inclusion considered as input variables and demand-side parameters as output variables.

The study finds that overall average efficiency towards financial inclusion increases significantly during post-phase, though all the public sector banks are not performing equally. There is a significant variation in efficiency level between them and even between the two periods. Further, there is a huge opportunity to enhance technical efficiency with the same quantity of input which will help to achieve the target of financial inclusion.

A comparative study between the two phases has taken place to analyse the impact of the scheme on the technical efficiency of banks. One of the notable innovativeness of this study is that, unlike most of the previous studies which are mostly theoretical and conceptual, the present study may place itself as a unique inquiry in the domain of efficiency review of public sector banks during pre and post introduction of PMJDY.