Rural banking in India

Rural Banking In India is a subject that is assuming Increasing importance and is bound to be one of the dominant topics of discussion during the decades to come. This is as it should be because nearly 80 per cent of the country's population lives in 5.76 lakh villages and therefore economic development and progress of India really means reconstruction and resur gence of the rural communities of the country. Among the various infrastructure facilities that would influence the economic development of the rural masses in India, provision of banking facilities is an important one. Availability of banking and credit facilities may not be a sufficient condition for the development of village communities but is certainly an essential condition without which development cannot and will not take place.

Literature on banking in India has been growing in recent years. Though there have been numerous articles in various journals on Rural Banking in India and quite a few edited books containing contributed articles on different aspects of the subject by different authors, it may not be an exaggeration to say that there has not been a single comprehensive and critical book on the subject, explaining, analysing and assessing the various aspects of the subject of Rural Banking in India. This book is an attempt to fill the gap.

The author has made an attempt in this book to analyse and critically assess the role played by various unorganised and organised banking and financial institutions in rural areas of India. He has analysed the various problems and issues that have cropped up, the manner in which they are being tackled and has made an attempt to indicate the manner in which the problems should be dealt with, if rural banking is to become an effective instrument of rural reconstruction and development.