Essay on the Role of Banking in India's Developing Economy
One of the major considerations that led to the nationalization of the fourteen major commercial banks of India in 1969 was the fact that banks, in general, had been negligent of the vital priority sectors of the economy, viz., agriculture and small-scale industries. The commercial banks had remained largely indifferent to the credit needs of the farmers for agricultural operations and land improve¬ment. A handful of people were able to exploit the bank finance to serve their own individual interests and convenience. Very often, they used bank funds for the hoarding of essential articles and for specialization, thus nurturing anti-social elements. Nationalization brought about a major policy shift in the working of these banks.
The economic development of our country depends more on real factors like the industrial development, modernization of agri¬culture, organization of internal trade and expansion of foreign trade, especially exports, and less on the monetary factors contri¬buted by banking— Economic planning like laying down of specific targets and allocating particular sums of money that constitute the economic policy of the government also plays a significant role. Still we cannot under-estimate the importance of banking and the monetary mechanism.
One of the most important problems of a developing economy is that of capital formation. There is a good deal of difference between hoarding and saving and the people in the countryside have to be made to realize the difference. This can be easily done by banks. They can undertake to educate the rural populace and thus mobilize their savings. A number of leading economists have con¬firmed the fact that the amount of capital available in India for investment is surprisingly and inexplicably large. Only we need exploiting this idle capital. Who else can