population. this is further complemented by rbi quarterly statistics on deposits and credit of scbs : december 2022 union budget 2023 - 24 https : / / www. pmjdy. gov. in as of march 2023 a network of 2. 17 lakh atms 14, out of which 47 per cent are in rural and semi - urban areas. additionally, there are close to 32 lakh banking correspondents ( bcs ) engaged by banks 15 providing last mile access. as of 2021, 78 per cent of indian adults ( population with 15 years or more of age ) had a bank account as compared to 53 per cent in 2014 16. banking services have been made accessible to every village within a 5 km radius in 25 states and 7 union territories covering 99. 94 per cent of villages 17. this has been supplemented by a few important developments which got a fillip during covid. the first noteworthy development is the increasing use of technology in finance. technology in finance has been an important enabler that has empowered us to create a more inclusive and efficient financial ecosystem. banks have been innovating and enhancing the quality and reach of their services using technological solutions for some time now. however, this got accelerated during the covid period when mobility became a challenge and technology came to the rescue for fulfilling all our banking needs. the demands placed by the circumstances compelled banks and financial institutions to rethink their business processes and review their strategies. the reserve bank also facilitated banks and financial institutions in this journey by issuing appropriate guidelines such as use of video kyc. however, all this was made possible through the giant strides taken by our country in building a public digital infrastructure with india stack coupled with jandhan – aadhar – mobile, the so - called jam trinity, account aggregator framework and other digital initiatives, it enabled a decisive entry of the country into a digital finance era. what makes india stack unique is the scale, public accessibility and the comprehensiveness that has helped in making a building a more inclusive digital economy. the second important development to my mind during this period was the emergence of new partnerships between fintech companies and banks. banks are seen leveraging technological partnerships with fintechs in various ways to provide better products and better serve their customers. in this partnership, fintechs can contribute their technology expertise, while banks bring their domain expertise. by leveraging technologies such as chatbots, mobile apps, and personalized digital rbi data available at https : / / www.

assets over 1 per cent, non - performing loans around 2 per cent as of march 2009. all commercial banks meet the minimum capital adequacy norm of 9 per cent and throughout the crisis period, inter - bank markets for money, forex and debt have been functioning smoothly. the impact of the crisis in india, as in many emerging market economies ( emes ), spilled over from the real sector to the financial sector. industry and businesses especially the small and medium enterprises ( sme ) sector had to grapple with a host of problems such as delay in payments of bills from overseas buyers as also domestic buyers affected by the global slowdown ; increase in stocks of finished goods ; fall in value of inventories, especially raw material, which in many cases were acquired at higher prices such as metal and crude oil based products ; slowing down of capacity expansion due to fall in investment demand ; demand compression for employment intensive industries, such as, gems and jewellery, construction and allied activities, textiles, auto and auto components and other export oriented industries. hotels and airlines apart from it also saw fall in demand due to global downturn. recognising that the unexpected and swift turn of events could lead to problems of a spiralling downturn, the rbi took a series of regulatory measures in addition to providing liquidity and special refinance. during the years from 2005 - 6 onwards, in the context of high growth in bank credit to certain sectors, the rbi had raised in stages the risk weights for these sectors and had also increased the provisioning requirements for standard assets. in november 2008, as a countercyclical measure, the additional risk weights and provisions were withdrawn and restored to previous levels. the prudential regulations for restructured accounts were modified, as a one - time measure and for a limited period of time in view of the extraordinary external factors, for preserving the economic and productive value of assets which were otherwise viable. the modified regulations were in operation for applications for re - structuring received up to march 31, 2009 and restructured packages implemented within 120 days of receipt of application or by june 30, 2009, whichever was earlier. banks were, therefore, required to take swift action for detecting weaknesses and putting in place the re - structured packages in order to avail of the benefits in assets classification under the modified prudential regulations. the modifications permitted the restructured accounts to be treated as standard assets provided they were standard on the eve of the crisis, viz.,