By Rina Chandran

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The government's push for financial access for hundreds of millions of the unbanked is helping secure its vote base and creating lucrative opportunities for financial institutions, technology and mobile services firms.

In his budget speech on Friday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee may announce funds for a common technology platform to reach the goal of a banking outlet in every village of more than 2,000 people by March, 2011, senior government officials say.

The government may also say it will channel more welfare payments through banks, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the flagship scheme which analysts say was key to the Congress-led government's re-election last year.

Less than half of the country's billion-plus population has a bank account; only about 10 percent have any kind of life insurance.

Access to financial services is key to equitable growth, for the government to derive the benefits of social security schemes and for bringing savings of the poor into the system and investing them, Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao has said.

"The bottom of the pyramid throws up a very big opportunity for commercial banks," said Manohara Raj, business head of microfinance at HDFC Bank, the No.2 private sector bank, using a popular marketing term to describe the poor.

"It is possible to tap this segment in a sustainable and increasingly profitable manner as customers move out of poverty."

Past legislation, including cooperative banks and priority sector lending, was also aimed at financial inclusion.