Indian Banking Industry: Challenges and Opportunities

The banking industry in India has a huge canvas of history, which covers the traditional banking Practices from the time of Britishers to the reforms period, nationalization to privatization of banks and now increasing numbers of foreign banks in India. Therefore, Banking in India has been through a long journey. Banking industry in India has also achieved a new height with the changing times. The use of technology has brought a revolution in the working style of the banks. Nevertheless, the fundamental aspects of banking i.e. trust and the confidence of the people on the institution remain the same. The majority of the banks are still successful in keeping with the confidence of the shareholders as well as other stakeholders. However, with the changing dynamics of banking business brings new kind of risk exposure. In this paper an attempt has been made to identify the general sentiments, challenges and opportunities for the Indian Banking Industry. This article is divided in three parts. First part includes the introduction and general scenario of Indian banking industry. The second part discusses the various challenges and opportunities faced by Indian banking industry. Third part concludes that urgent emphasis is required on the Indian banking product and marketing strategies in order to get sustainable competitive edge over the intense competition from national and global banks. This article is a small seed to existing branch of knowledge in banking industry and is useful for bankers, strategist, policy makers and researchers.