The Forum of Free Enterprise is a non-political organization founded in 1956 by A. D. Shroff has been established to educate public opinion in India on free enterprise and a democratic way of life. The Forum publishes booklets to further its objects. The following booklet titled ‘The Changing Profile of Indian Banking’ is a book form of a lecture delivered by Mr J. N. Saxena a former Chairman of Industrial Development Bank of India on the auspices of the A.D Shroff Memorial Trust in Bombay. The booklet was published on 1st June 1977.
Mr Saxena begins by explaining the performance of the public sector in banking, the launch of Region Rural Banks in 1975 and the role of village money lenders. The growth of Regional Rural Banks provided a decentralised setup and better management. The commercial bank’s post nationalisation has narrowed the gap by expanding to semi-urban and rural areas improving the rural credit-deposit ratio. Moreover, he professes that banks must lend to increase the return/ output and avert static lending unlikely to increase income. He concludes by recommending to improve productivity and quality of banking services.