C. Miya
Banks are essential for connecting savers with investors and allocating resourcesefficiently. In the last two-three decades, the banking industry has been characterized byinnovation, intensifying competition and expansion of technology based distributionchannels. The Indian banking system consists of 26 public sector banks, 20 privatesector banks, 43 foreign banks, 56 regional rural banks, 1,589 urban cooperative banksand 93,550 rural cooperative banks, in addition to cooperative credit institutions.Public-sector banks control nearly 80 percent of the market, leaving comparativelymuch smaller shares for its private peers.