Commercial banking in india in the wake of finacial inclusion

Paradigm shift in the Indian financial sector has taken place during the past five decade with transformation from class banking to mass banking (1969), coverage expansion through introduction of RRB and lead bank scheme, financial sector reform (1991) transforming banking structure from traditional brick-and-mortar branches to mechanized banking through technological up-gradation. Despite all such financial sector progress in breadth and length, inability of providing basic banking services to the unprivileged sections has been an unproved assertion of recent years. Low propensity to save and invest has constrained capital formation which in turn affected growth process of LDCs and developing nations. The urgency of pro-poor growth has been felt in the current five year plan as an alternative formula for economic inclusion of vulnerable sections which in turn has been expected to accelerate the growth process. Initiative in this direction has been taken by GOI, RBI and NABARD jointly since 2005 aiming at enrolling the unreached sections through banking services and facilities. The skewed pattern of the banking sector growth regionally has been assumed to be a source of disparity in the financial sector and one of the parameters of financial exclusion. The present study is an attempt to understand if any regional disparity exists or not in the growth of scheduled commercial banks in India in terms of deposit, credit, number of branch offices and population group wise distribution of banking centers. An attempt was made to understand the pattern of financial inclusion in Assam in terms of district level banking coverage and progress of various public sector banks in branch expansion across various districts till 2010 end.