Talking Financial Inclusion in Liberalised India: Conversations with Governors of the Reserve Bank of India

This book presents a set of conversations with five former Governors of Reserve Bank of India (from 1992 onwards) on the topic of financial inclusion. Two key aspects are introduced in the conversations with each Governor: the initiatives that were undertaken during their tenure and their responses to some of the current issues. Further, they examine the reasons and justifications for significant decisions and measures that were undertaken or withheld. The discussion captures the evolution and approach of the central bank in addressing a variety of questions pertaining to financial inclusion.

The volume is an important contribution to the study of India’s continuous but not entirely successful efforts in increasing the reach of its formal financial sector. It reconstructs how the policy approach to inclusive banking has progressed and resisted commercial and market imperatives to safeguard the deprived and dispossessed sections of society.

With its wide-ranging blend of conversations, documentation, research and commentary coupled with its engaging style, the book will interest students and researchers in the areas of development, banking, macroeconomics, public administration and governance, as well as academics, analysts, policymakers, think tanks, journalists, media and those concerned with the Indian economic policy.

M. S. Sriram is a member of the faculty at the Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. He is also Distinguished Fellow of the Institute for Development of Research in Banking Technology, an institute established by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In the past he was the ICICI Bank-Lalita D Gupte Chair Professor of Microfinance at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad; member of faculty at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand; and Vice President of Basix. He has authored the annual Inclusive Finance India Report for 2015, 2016 and 2017. He has served on the External Advisory Committee of the RBI for granting licences to Small Finance Banks; chaired an expert committee to examine the feasibility of establishing an integrated Kerala Co-operative Bank; and was a member of the Vaidyanathan Committee for co-operative reform.