This book assesses the performance of banks in India over the past several decades, and discusses their current status after fifty years of nationalization. The performance of different categories of banks is evaluated by employing both the traditional ratio analysis and more sophisticated efficiency techniques. The book also explores the market conditions under which Indian banks operate. Going beyond a formal banking study, the book also investigates the causes of the widespread presence of informal credit in parallel to its formal banking counterpart. This approach makes it more comprehensive, unique and closer to the real world. After 50 years of nationalization, India’s banking sector is at a crossroads, given the huge and unabated non-performing assets and talks of consolidation. This book, encompassing both the formal and the predominantly ‘trust-based’ informal credit system, provides essential insights for bankers and policymakers, which will be invaluable in their endeavours to implement meaningful changes. It may also spark new research in the fields of banking performance and efficiency analysis. Lastly, the book not only has significant implications for students of economics, banking, finance and management, but also offers an important resource to support training courses for banking personnel in India.

The concept of sustainable development was described in the United Nations’ 1987 Bruntland Commission Report as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This new volume presents an eclectic selection of chapters that aim to integrate social, economic, and environmental objectives. Through studies and research, the book presents the concept of sustainable development in various manifestations along with its challenges and advantages, looking at sustainability in business, manufacturing, finance, etc. It explores how new financial technology (or Fintech) can help foster sustainable finance and the role of digitization and AI in achieving sustainability goals. It considers the importance of cultural sustainability and presents sustainability-promoting strategies affecting the environment, such as addressing the mitigation of marine plastic pollution and reusing plastic waste to make eco-bricks. Other topics include development of sustainable smart cities, a case study of sustainability at the local level, such as marigold cultivation for socio-economic sustainability, and more.

Chiefly speeches by various governors of the Reserve Bank of India.

Any enquiry into the nature, performance, role, demerits, growth, efficiency, or other aspects of financial services such as banking and insurance activities, requires rigorous estimates of their economic output, i.e., the economic contributions made by these firms, as well as by the industries as a whole. Accordingly, this book condenses several theoretical, methodological, empirical, and philosophical issues in conceptualizing, measuring, and empirically operationalizing the economic output of the banking and insurance industries. The analytical focus is on both Global and Emerging Markets perspectives. The book synthesizes applied and conceptual evidence to locate the chosen theme's analytical patterns, consensus, and disagreements. The selected subject matter is studied within the firm-level and aggregate settings, bringing literature of varied scopes together. Contributions from various international academics, practitioners, and policymakers further enrich the narrative. The book concludes with data-driven case studies that analyze the extent to which the critical performance parameters of the banking and insurance industries in the BRIICS economies – including estimation of aggregate industry-level partial factor productivities, total factor productivity, technical efficiency, and returns to scale – vary concerning alternate measures of their output. The present work also provides a brief note on the inputs measurement dimension, following which there is a discussion on the limitations, future scope, and conclusions. This work will be valuable for researchers and policymakers undertaking performance analyses related to banking and insurance activities. It shall provide them with the examination of a plethora of analytical options and related issues on the theory and praxis of output measurement, all finely organized into one single volume.

This paper measures the performance of different metrics in assessing banking system vulnerabilities. It finds that metrics based on equity market valuations of bank capital are better than regulatory capital ratios, and other metrics, in spotting banks that failed (bad apples). This paper proposes that these market-based ratios could be used as a surveillance tool to assess vulnerabilities in the banking sector. While the measures may provide a somewhat fuzzy signal, it is better to have a strategy for identifying bad apples, even if sometimes the apples turn out to be fine, than not being able to spot any bad apples before the barrel has been spoiled.

The global economy has experienced four waves of rapid debt accumulation over the past 50 years. The first three debt waves ended with financial crises in many emerging market and developing economies. During the current wave, which started in 2010, the increase in debt in these economies has already been larger, faster, and broader-based than in the previous three waves. Current low interest rates mitigate some of the risks associated with high debt. However, emerging market and developing economies are also confronted by weak growth prospects, mounting vulnerabilities, and elevated global risks. A menu of policy options is available to reduce the likelihood that the current debt wave will end in crisis and, if crises do take place, will alleviate their impact.

As the world is changing, many scholars, analysts, and policy makers agree that even as governments need to confront external threats, creating sustainable domestic environments is imperative as a policy priority. As events surrounding September 11, 2001 continue to remind us, marginalized sections of the population can become breeding grounds for dissatisfaction, disenchantment, and eventually, targets for terrorist groups. Throughout the cold war period, South Asia served as a strategic region in the bilateral rivalry between the United States and the former Soviet Union, coupled with China's careful scrutiny. In the post cold war period, several bilateral conflicts, the nuclear tests of 1998, the post 9/11 world in which South Asia has become a breeding ground for terrorists, entwined with an embattled, albeit a shared history, continue to make India and Pakistan a pivotal region to study. A timely analysis which starts with traditional approaches and combines them with new thinking within a human security policy framework, this book will contribute to a deeper and more holistic understanding of policy priorities of major players in a pivotal region of the world. It begins by analyzing security policies of India and Pakistan that have emerged in the context of geo-political concerns based on realist calculations. It also looks at the policies of the two governments in key areas such as the economy, education, public health, and safeguarding against gender-based violence. Concern with human security prompts analyses such as the one adopted in this book to argue that governments should empower and protect their citizens from serious threats to their survival. Home to a fifth of the world's population, large numbers of whom are reeling in poverty, where terrorism continues to be a concern, along with ongoing border disputes, India and Pakistan will find it imperative to make careful evaluations of this multipronged challenge to security. While it has relevance for regional policy priorities, this analysis also has broader implications for world powers such as the United States and China, for whom South Asia remains a key strategic area.