Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana PMJDY, the National Mission for Financial Inclusion completed eight years of successful implementation today, August 28th. More than 46.25 crore beneficiaries banked under PMJDY since inception, amounting to over one lakh 73 thousand crore rupees. PMJDY Accounts grew three-fold from 14.72 crore in March 2015 to 46.25 crore as on the 10th of this month.<br />''<br />''56 percent Jan-Dhan account holders are women and 67 percent of Jan Dhan accounts are in rural and semi-urban areas. 31.94 crore RuPay cards have been issued to PMJDY account holders.<br />''<br />''On the occasion 8th Anniversary of PMJDY, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that financial inclusion is a major step towards inclusive growth which ensures the overall economic development of marginalised sections of society. She said the continuation of PMJDY beyond 2018 saw a marked shift in approach to meet the challenges and requirements of the emerging financial inclusion landscape in the country.<br />''<br />''The Minister said, the underlying pillars of PMJDY, namely, Banking the Unbanked, Securing the Unsecured, and Funding the Unfunded have made it possible to adopt multi-stakeholders collaborative approach while leveraging technology for serving the unserved and underserved areas as well. She said financial inclusion needs policy-led intervention based on an architecture linked to suitable financial products, information, and communication technologies, and data infrastructure.  <br />''<br />''Minister of State for Finance Dr. Bhagwat Karad said PMJDY has become the foundation stone for the government's people-centric economic initiatives.  The PMJDY was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address in 2014. <br />