Tier-2 cities outpace metros in digital credit
Tier-2 cities are ahead of metros in digital credit adoption, a new index has found, even as bigger cities continue to dominate digital payments. The Digital Credit & Inclusion Index (DCII) 2026, unveiled at the Global Fintech Festival here on September 10 by Dr Rajiv Kumar, Chairman, Pahlé India Foundation (PIF), and Vikas Bansal, CEO, Amazon Pay India, showed Tier-2 cities scoring 58.64, against 55.77 for Tier-3 and 53.1 for Tier-1 cities. The trend held across age, gender, income, occupation and education groups.
Developed by PIF with Amazon Pay India, the index is based on a survey of 5,149 respondents across 100 cities in 20 states. India’s overall score stood at 55.85 out of 100, placing it in the “Emerging & Served” category. While Access scored 61.24 and Adoption 57.17, Impact lagged at 49.16, pointing to a gap between usage and actual financial benefit. The survey also found salaried women scoring higher than salaried men — 62.0 against 60.2 — narrowing the overall gender gap seen elsewhere in the data, particularly among younger respondents. Confidence, however, has not kept pace with access. Trust in digital borrowing stood at just 52.5, compared with 74.4 for digital payments. During a cash crunch, 48.2 per cent of respondents turned to savings, while only 6.9 per cent used a digital loan app and 3.4 per cent used Buy Now, Pay Later.” Evidence of this kind must anchor policy, not trail it,” Dr Kumar said, adding that the index would evolve into an annual benchmark for financial inclusion. Bansal said the findings would help build “more relevant credit and savings experiences” as India works towards its Viksit Bharat 2047 goals.
