usha thorat : banking in the hinterland keynote address by ms usha thorat, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, at the conference on “ banking in the hinterland ”, organised by the indian banks association and rural marketing agencies association of india, mumbai, 14 february 2007. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to be here this morning to share my thoughts on banking in the hinterland. the theme of my talk today is that there is a huge business opportunity in banks going rural. rural banking has great potential if banks adopt appropriate approach and suitable strategies – scale up their business levels, achieve capacity utilisation and devise innovative ways to cater to the typical needs of the vast rural sector. i will divide my address into three parts. in the first part, i shall describe the rural urban divide in banking. in the second part, i will describe some changes that are happening in the rural sector. finally, i will try and elaborate on the kind of strategies that could be considered for banking in the hinterland. part – i : the rural urban divide analyses of certain indicators of banking penetration of scheduled commercial banks in the country, including rrbs, amply testify to the rural urban divide existing in their operations / business, as will be seen from the following : average population per branch office ( appbo ) the average population served per branch office is an important indicator of banking penetration. the trend in this indicator ever since the last decade is as under : while the population per branch has decreased for urban areas, the same has increased for rural areas indicating that branch expansion has not kept pace with the population increase in the rural areas. number of accounts per 1000 population the number of deposit ( current plus savings ) and credit accounts per thousand population is given below : it is seen that the deposits ( current plus savings ) accounts per 1000 population in the rural areas as a whole, is about sixty per cent of the urban areas. north eastern states, orissa bihar and chattisgarh have particularly low ratio. similar position is generally evident even in terms of credit accounts per 1000 population. however, southern states are relatively better off in this regard ( annex 1 and annex 2 ). number of accounts per branch the number of deposit and credit accounts per branch in the rural areas is generally lower than the position in urban areas as shown under : outstanding balances per branch the deposits and credit outstanding per branch also reflect the rural urban divide. it is seen that deposits

r gandhi : targeted attacks – protection of critical infrastructure of the country and capacity building speech by mr r gandhi, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, in the valedictory session of the 9th annual summit “ cyber & network security ”, organized by the associated chambers of commerce and industry of india ( assocham ) along with the council of europe ( strasbourg, france ), new delhi, 29 july 2016. * * * assistance provided by shri s ganesh kumar, cgm is gratefully acknowledged. 1. i am indeed glad to be present here today as we conclude the deliberations on an important topical area – pertaining to cyber security and protection of critical infrastructure from cyber threats, coupled with capacity building in this crucial area of importance. i must congratulate the organisers on having chosen the theme of this summit, given the concerns emanating from cyber security related incidents. 2. we are at a critical juncture in the world of today which is characterised by rapid advances in the use of information and communication technology and where misuse of the facilities results in erosion of public confidence apart from resulting in financial loss and disruption of normal activities. today ’ s world is witnessing the embedded use of it in almost all spheres of life ; be it in business or financial sector ; be it government or household sectors, use of ict is pervasive ; even as mundane as switching a light is today executed by use of ict ; in addition, networked devices are now the norm. new concepts such as centralised processing systems, the internet of things and mobile computing have all made life very easy ; but this also has the attendant risks, prime among which is cyber security. the financial system which is at the nerve centre of economic activity is an easy target not only because it is one of the largest users of information and communications technology but also because financial crime results in easy access to money ; this also makes it important that cyber security is given its due importance. 3. recent developments in banking as also payment and settlement systems have resulted in enhanced customer comfort and flexibility in terms of timing, location and choice of channels. these, however, also expose the customers as well as banks to risk of cyber - attacks. while the banks have better resilience in terms of risk mitigation structures and ability to absorb the losses and expenses, the customers may not be so privileged. a relatively small value fraud of a few thousands of rupees may endanger the purchase of basic needs and