growth achieved so far and the one projected ahead has many facilitators, but implementation and leveraging of technology is, by far, amongst the biggest enablers in the context. i have divided my talk today into three parts. in the first part we would look at core banking, the journey so far and the need to look “ beyond core banking ”. in the second part i would be touching upon the initiatives taken by idrbt and the areas and technologies that the banks should set their focus on. in the concluding part i would be speaking on the initiatives taken by the reserve bank of india in the area of information technology. part i core banking solution – an assessment core banking systems ( cbs ) have facilitated building up customer - centric, service oriented architecture of banking services at front end and also created the capacity to efficiently handle large volumes of transactions, data and book - keeping requirements. cbs is positioned as an integrated solution to the basic banking operations pertaining to deposits, withdrawals, credit delivery, and attendant backend jobs, mainly in the retail and small business segments. it has enabled the introduction of efficient and convenient delivery channels like atms, net banking, tele banking etc. so, when the banking industry has reached, so to say, a critical mass as far as using cbs is concerned, what ’ s next? do we bis central bankers ’ speeches need to go “ beyond core banking ” and if so, what should be the areas and technologies that the banks need to focus on? let us now look at the banking services in india from a different perspective. it is said that india lives in its villages. then, isn ’ t it strange that only 5 % of them have proper banking services and that there ’ s only 1 branch per 15, 000 persons. it is also a fact that although banking in india is fairly well developed in certain areas, it is fairly under - penetrated and grossly under - served in other areas. if one views the areas which have not been served, it may be said that that until now, banks have not seen banking in rural areas as an attractive business, although, in the recent past, the opportunity and growth in rural markets is equalising with urban markets. the fact that there is tremendous potential for inclusive banking is, now, making banks recognise rural banking as economically - viable, at least to a certain extent. to make this become attractive, technology provides solutions. banks need to utilise technology to harness this potential by

change management strategy and decisions. emerging trends the big bang – mobile banking revolution when it comes to revolution in mobile technology, i think of two types of revolutions. one is the mobile revolution as such and the other is mobile banking revolution. mobile revolution refers to rapid innovations in mobile devices with customers being overwhelmed with a slew of new handheld devices right from google ’ s android operating system, research in motion ’ s blackberry os and apple ’ s latest ios iphone platform, tablet computer etc. mobile banking revolution refers to a buffet of potential services that a banker can provide leveraging on mobile technology. in the usa for example, the value provided by banks with mobiles is the remote deposit capture i. e. where the customers increasingly use online mobile services to deposit paper checks. although it is a driver for mobile banking adoption, increasing efficiency in usage of checks is an important value addition particularly to be noted from the indian perspective. bis central bankers ’ speeches cloud computing – “ pay only for what you use ” it is becoming evident that cloud computing is getting cost effective in setting up it infrastructure. the big and medium enterprises are now migrating to hybrid cloud models. while non - financial industry has taken huge strides in this arena, the banking sector, at least in india, also seems to be moving in this direction. security is often quoted as a concern for the banks adopting cloud computing, but with robust and modern security devices and software available, the bankers ’ security concerns regarding protection of data can be addressed. the cloud concept is here to stay and therefore, the focus should be rather on how to use the technology in a secure manner. virtually automate branch? although the trend towards online banking through internet or mobiles is evident, in a country like india the core of the banking habit is personal banking, meaning visit to the bank branch. hence a parallel shift towards smarter, more efficient, friendlier and more automated brick and mortar experience is the need of the hour. integrating self service capabilities into bank branches would be a smart way. why not make the customers walk virtually into their “ home branch ”? why not think of using collaboration technology to have video chats with the valued customers? this leads me to the next line of thought. how about social media? we have been active in social networking among peer group through various social networking sites like facebook and twitter etc. the customers have been discussing about the services good and bad about their banks and sharing their banking experiences too. but have the banks thought of,