Deposits in no-frills Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) bank accounts rose to an all-time high of Rs 2.63 lakh crore as of April 9, 2025, which also showed that average cash deposits per account was at a high of Rs 4,760.
The cumulative PMJDY accounts at 552.8 million, with a total of 379.8 million Rupay debit cards issued to them. The total balance in these accounts stood at Rs 2,63,145 crore compared with Rs 2,34,997 crore a year ago.
Even though it was anticipated that the accounts were largely opened to get government benefits, the accounts have been a source of a large pool of low-cost funds for public sector banks.
PMJDY was launched on August 28, 2014, to provide universal banking services by opening a zero-balance bank account for every unbanked household. The main features of the scheme include one basic savings bank deposit (BSBD) account for every unbanked adult, an overdraft (OD) limit of Rs 10,000 and a free RuPay debit card with inbuilt accident insurance cover of up to Rs 2,00,000.
There is no requirement to maintain any minimum balance in PMJDY accounts. Deposits in such accounts earn interest of 3-4%.
As per the latest data, number of beneficiaries at rural/semiurban centre bank branches stood at 368.1 million while beneficiaries at urban metro centre bank branches were at 184.7 million. Rural-urban female beneficiaries were 308 million.
The JAM Trinity – Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, mobile – has stood the government in good stead in implementing large-scale, technology-enabled and real-time direct benefit transfers (DBTs) to improve the welfare of the low-income category people, especially during Covid.
Transfer of assorted subsidies and sops to the beneficiaries through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism resulted in savings of nearly Rs 3.5 trillion between FY15 and FY23.