Management of urban co-operative banks

Banking has always been the major vehicle for any nation's economic development. With the liberalisation and globalisation of Indian economy, a paradigm shift has taken place in Indian banking to help the country's liberalised economy perform as per global standards. In the process, banking sector-be it commercial, development or co-operative has been witnessing a whirlwind of changes and challenges. These challenges are manifold, multi-faceted and multi dimensional. Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBS), which are functionally more akin to commercial banks than to their co operative counterparts, have considerably been affected by the super-cyclonic winds of change. The main challenges for UCBS are, inter-alia,

1. To retain and enhance their market share,

2. To develop skills and expertise to combat

diverse banking operations, 3. To professionalise and depoliticise

management,

4. To profitably manage funds in-flow and out-flow as also recovery of NPAS,

5. To retain and develop human resources

for qualitative productivity,

6. To cope with increased customer expectations by developing better and newer products and services,

7. To recognise, accept and translate latest information and communication technology into useful applications for their business development.

In order to convert these threats into opportunities, UCBS would be needed to change their mind-set. Today's and tomorrow's problems cannot be solved by yesterday's solution. To effectively cope with increasing competitions, their way of doing business demands a radical change-they should become market-driven, self motivated, customer-focussed and also profit-conscious.

This book, a doctoral thesis, is an humble attempt to address all those foregoing issues and an effective answer to them. Unlike this book, not a single research study at micro-level, and that too, on UCBS, has hitherto been made dealing systematically with the multi-dimensional problems in respect of both administrative and operational management of UCBs as also of their branches-taking a particular district as a unit of research study. This book, therefore, humbly claims originality for having been a pioneering attempt in this field hitherto remained untrodden by any researcher in India..

Nay, a careful glance at the Chapterisation scheme will corroborate the fact that the thematic presentation of topics does not particularly pertain to only the banks subjected to my field research but practically transcends the barriers of any particular district or state and resemble at one with the major issues commonly confronted in their day-to-day activities by all UCBS in general operating across the length and breadth of our entire country.

Since the book comprehensively covers the concepts of UCBS, explores and identifies major issues affecting their efficient functioning and simultaneously suggests feasible remedial measures thereof as also incorporates the latest vital information in the ANNEXURE styled Millennium Updation on UCBs, this book will undoubtedly serve the purpose of a pleasant text-cum-reference book, a friend and guide as also a GEETA to all bankers, scholars, co-operators, policy makers and the public at large for improving their frontiers of knowledge in this particular branch of study.