Role of financial literacy and digital financial inclusion on sustainable development among the mao naga tribe of northeast india

Abstract

This research empirically analyses the influence of financial literacy and digital financial inclusion on sustainable development. The notion of financial newlineliteracy, adopted from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, combines financial awareness, attitude, knowledge, and behaviour to achieve financial well-being. Digital financial inclusion is the process by which individuals or households in the underserved or unprivileged section of society have access to formal financial services through innovative digital technologies. The main features of digital financial inclusion include reduction of costs, security, ease of access, usefulness, and actual usage of digital financial services. The current study collected data from the Mao-Naga tribe of Manipur and newlineNagaland, Northeast India using a convenient and purposive sampling method. The research method is quantitative in nature, and primary data were collected from adult individuals who were 18 years old or above. These respondents were eligible and able to manage their own bank accounts independently. The study has a crosssectional time horizon with a deductive approach. The data consisted of 1147 samples of Mao-Naga tribe adults using a structured questionnaire on a seven-point newlineLikert scale. The statistical technique of Statistical Packages of Social Science newline(SPSS) software was utilised to ascertain the descriptive result of the study. The newlinehypothesis testing was conducted using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation newlineModelling (PLS-SEM) statistical model. The SMART-PLS 4.0 software was employed to test the hypotheses of PLS-SEM, explanatory variance, effect size, PLS predict, and importance-performance map analysis (IPMA). Financial literacy and sustainable development were analysed from a reflective-formative approach of higher-order constructs. This research indicates that financial literacy and digital financial inclusion can positively influence sustainable development among the Mao-Naga tribe.