Reserve Bank of India

Over the last three years, the scope of the Reserve Bank of India’s Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India has drastically come down. Information on important aspects of the operations of commercial banks and other financial institutions is now not presented in the report. A plea is made to restore the contents of the erstwhile reports and enhance the utility of the publication with additional data fromRBI’s existing database.

In spite of their distinct organisational structure and banking philosophy based on mutuality, there is scant evidence on efficiency of cooperative banks. The efficiency of district central cooperative banks in India is investigated by constructing a panel of 297 cooperative banks over the period 2002–14. Using parametric and non-parametric frontier analysis, it is found that efficiency estimates vary depending upon whether advances or investments of DCCBs are used as output. The efficiency of cooperative banking is mapped, and shows considerable variation in efficiency of DCCBs across states. The findings suggest the need for innovative strategies to improve cooperative banking efficiency in the country.

The 1980s was a period of currency shortage in South Asia. South Korea's moneymaking technology was key to countries like India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Pakistan, where "made-in-Korea" banknotes and coins were circulated. Further, South Korea's moneymaking technology was transferred to some countries like Bhutan to produce currency. Such export of currencies and technology transfer from South Korea to South Asia is significant in the sense that possessing and producing unique national currencies is closely linked to state legitimacy and power.

The debate around the conversion of Scheduled Urban Cooperative Banks into commercial banks warrants an investigation into their performance. The larger objective is to examine whether SUCBs are able to compete with their peer group and remain viable when subjected to stringent regulatory requirements, in the event of their conversion. The performance of SUCBs as a group is comparable with that of their peer group, that is, old private sector banks, with the exception of non-performing assets. Performance rankings reveal that the smaller SUCBs are better performers than larger ones, calling for a relook at the threshold for conversion. In the event of conversion of SUCBs into commercial banks, some of the converted entities will be as good as some of the existing OPSBs, or may even be a shade better.

No Regrets by D N Ghosh; New Delhi: Rupa Publications, 2015; pp xi + 375, ₹695 (hardcover).