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Abstract
With more than 70% of rural population in India, development is synonymous with rural development. The North-Eastern Region (NER) of India is predominantly rural and underdeveloped, and it comprises of eight states viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. An important obstacle to rural development is lack of financial accessibility by the rural population. Financial inclusion refers to universal access to a wide range of financial services at a reasonable cost.