products and instruments as well as high level of service delivery. the initiatives towards inclusive banking would see customer base of banks expanding at a faster pace. the continued emphasis on shifting cash transactions to non - cash modes ; and the efforts of the government to transfer all social the rise of machines, richard doling, the new york times, october 11, 2008. bis central bankers ’ speeches benefits electronically to the citizens, the volume of transactions in the electronic payment systems would grow manifold. further, as the idc financial insights, april 2012 has reported “ banks would like to see their core banking systems help them cope with the onslaught of new regulations and the new reporting requirements that come along with the new rules ”. besides, several initiatives listed in the " payment systems in india : vision 2012 – 15 " such as uniform routing code, uniform account code, electronic trade financing etc are going to affect the way the banks are processing transactions today and would require, if implemented, suitable adjustments by banks. thus, these developments are likely to challenge the scalability and adaptability of cbs in banks not only in terms of transaction handling but also in terms of adding new products, new processes and new applications. are the banks ready for such future demands? 20. question 3 : converting data archives to data warehouse – have we tapped the potential? the needs for use of business intelligence, analytical and data warehousing for retaining competitive advantages in a highly competitive industry were never so urgent for banks. analytics has the power to transform technology and data from supporting tools into strategic weapons for retaining and servicing the existing and potential customers. cbs of bank is generating huge piles of data. but how many of the banks have really leveraged the data goldmine they have to the hilt? have they sufficiently built skill sets to see pattern in those data bases and increased their understanding of customer behavior? have the banks realized the potential of analytics and business intelligence in fraud management and regulatory compliance in areas of aml / cft, suspicious transaction reporting etc? 21. question 4 : what ails alternate banking channels from achieving a critical mass – customer fear, ignorance or bad business pursuits by many banks? it is well known that socio - cultural factors affect the customers ’ adoption of alternate business channels. but are the banks doing enough to instill the sense of security, reliability and trustworthiness of the alternate channels in customers to help them overcome these barriers? adoption of alternate banking channels would require moving the customers from being “ assisted ” initially to becoming “

many of the leading companies owe their competitiveness to the reform process. greater exposure to internal as well external competition proved to be instrumental in building confidence among the indian companies to compete with foreign competitors in world market. apart from liberalised policy environment for overseas investment, india has gained ground as an important investor on the back of ( a ) rapid economic growth, ( b ) easy access to neutrality refers to a condition that the amount of outward investment should be repatriated in full by way of dividend, royalty, etc. within a period of five years. an indian party is a company incorporated in india or a body created under an act of parliament or a partnership firm registered under the indian partnership act 1932 and any other entity in india as may be notified by the reserve bank. when more than one such company, body or entity makes investment in the foreign entity, such combination will also form an “ indian party ”. bis central bankers ’ speeches financial resources and ( c ) strong motivations to acquire resources and strategic assets abroad. one should not assume that overseas investment by indian companies is a phenomenon of 1990s. in fact, indian firms began to invest overseas in the 1960s, but india ’ s restrictive policies for overseas investment limited them to small, minority joint ventures in developing economies. first major overseas indian venture was a textile mill set up in ethiopia in 1959 by the birla group of companies ( authkorala, 2009 ) 3. overseas investment operations were, however, geographically concentrated in west and east africa, middle east, and south and east asia with which india shared a colonial heritage and historical linkages. sustained growth in indian overseas investment could be seen starting during 1970s when the industrial licensing system was more stringent. trend of outward investments during the past one decade a trend analysis shows that the level of outward fdi from india has increased manifold since 1999 – 2000. the level of net outward fdi flows ( on bop basis ), however, recorded a sharp uptrend at us $ 74. 3 billion during the second half of 2000s ( 2005 – 06 to 2009 – 10 ) as compared to us $ 8. 2 billion in the first half of 2000s ( 2000 – 01 to 2004 – 05 ). even though trend in india ’ s outward fdi was moderately affected during crisis year of 2009 – 10, a sharp rebound was seen in 2010 – 11 ( table 1 ). in recent years, outward fdi continued to be mainly financed through equity and loans. although guarantees issued