NEW DELHI — AI-driven credit models could help unlock $130 billion to $170 billion in economic value by narrowing India’s lending gap and reducing reliance on informal credit, the government said Wednesday.
The government said India’s financial inclusion efforts are being reshaped by the convergence of strong digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence.
AI-based models that use consent-based data sharing and advanced analytics can improve credit assessment and risk management while expanding formal lending to micro, small and medium enterprises, informal workers, rural communities and women-led businesses, according to an official statement.
The government highlighted the Unified Lending Interface as a key tool for improving access to credit. Nearly 64 lenders, including 41 banks and 23 nonbanking financial companies, have been onboarded to the platform.
AI models can use the Unified Lending Interface to analyze digital footprints and assess credit risk. The interface is designed to make credit more accessible by enabling digital access to multiple data sources, including authentication services, land records, satellite services and financial and nonfinancial datasets used in loan processing.
The platform is being expanded to include customers of Regional Rural Banks and District Central Co-operative Banks, a move aimed at improving credit access in rural and semi-urban areas.
The Reserve Bank of India’s Account Aggregator framework complements those efforts by allowing secure, consent-based sharing of financial data across institutions. The system is intended to reduce documentation requirements and shorten loan approval times.
Account Aggregators are nonbanking financial companies that retrieve and consolidate a customer’s financial information and transfer data between financial institutions based on the customer’s consent.
More than 2.6 billion accounts are enabled to share data through the framework, and 252.9 million users have linked their accounts, the government said.
The government also cited other developments supporting digital financial inclusion, including the convergence of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile services. India now has more than 144 crore Aadhaar numbers and 58.16 crore Jan Dhan accounts, with cumulative deposits of more than Rs 3 lakh crore, alongside expanding mobile connectivity and 5G coverage.
In February 2026, the Digital India BHASHINI Division and the Reserve Bank of India signed a memorandum of understanding to integrate BHASHINI’s language AI models into banking and financial services, with the goal of improving multilingual access. (Source: IANS)
