Banking on openness

At the close of the deadline for bank licence applications, the Reserve Bank of India, in its capacity as the banking regulator, has received a number of applications for banks. This is good news. There are a large number of applicants with the capacity to run banks. The Indian banking sector, strangled for long due to lack of competition, public sector ownership and fears of foreign banks, has only been able to penetrate 50 per cent of households. That is, nearly half of India's population is unbanked.

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