The concept of social banking has been gradually losing significance in the ongoing era of financial sector reforms in India initiated in the early 1990s. Accordingly, the norms relating to Priority Sector Lending (PSL) are being followed by ‘Traditional’ banks viz. Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Old Private sector Banks (OPBs), and even the Foreign Banks (FBs)– the target being 40 percent; but not by the New generation Private sector Banks (NPBs). In this context, this paper looks into the relevance of social banking from a historical perspective, the growing prominence of NPBs in the reforms era which do not share the social banking responsibility, and the relevance of alternative approaches like Financial Inclusion in the ongoing reforms era. In the ongoing era of ‘Digital India’, the paper offers some ICT-based policy options to address the social banking concerns in the reforms era by Financial Inclusion model.
Volume 11 | 07-Special Issue
Pages: 1654-1666