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After nationalization, the breadth and scope of the Indian banking sector expanded at a rate perhaps unmatched by any other country. Indian banking has been remarkably successful at achieving mass participation. Between the time of the 1969 nationalizations and the present, over 58,000 bank branches were opened in India; these new branches, as of March 2003, had mobilized over 9 trillion Rupees in deposits, which represent the overwhelming majority of deposits in Indian banks.9.
This rapid expansion is attributable to a policy, which required banks to open four branches in unbanked locations for every branch opened in banked locations.

Between 1969 and 1980, the number of private branches grew more quickly than public banks, and on April 1, 1980, they accounted for approximately 17.5 percent of bank branches in India.

In April of 1980, the government undertook a second round of nationalization, placing under government control the six private banks whose nationwide deposits were above Rs. 2 billion, or a further 8 percent of bank branches, leaving approximately 10 percent of bank branches in private hands. The share of private bank branches stayed fairly constant between 1980 to 2000.

Nationalized banks remained corporate entities, retaining most of their staff, with the exception of the board of directors, who were replaced by appointees of the central government.

Since 1980, has been no further nationalization, and indeed the trend appears to be reversing itself, as nationalized banks are issuing shares to the public, in what amounts to a step towards privatization. The considerable accomplishments of the Indian banking sector notwithstanding, advocates for privatization argue that privatization will lead to several substantial improvements.

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* Contributed by -
Pritesh Y. Chothani, Ritesh Sud & Rachna Srivastava,
PGDBM 2006,
IMT, Ghaziabad.