Mumbai is India's financial focal point. All the major economic institutions like the Reserve Bank, the Bombay Stock Exchange, and the National Stock Exchange. Apart from that the head offices of most major non-governmental organizations are found in Mumbai.
The central government of India names the Governor, the head of the central board entrusted with administering the Reserve Bank. Established on 11th April, 1935, it could be called India's central bank. It is the monetary agency, in charge of determining and looking after the financial matters of national importance. It also manages the exchange control, besides issuing currency.
The Indian stock market could be properly gauged by looking at the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index or simply, the BSE Sensex, made up of thirty companies with the biggest sale of shares. These companies also represent different sectors in the stock market. These companies account for one-fifth of BSE's total market sales. It began in April 1979.
The National Stock Exchange was included in the fold in 1990. In terms of business it is third biggest in the world. Besides being one of the best Indian stock exchanges, NSE along with BSE, accounts for eighty-three percent of India's stock market.
The stock and other security markets of India are governed by the SEBI, or the Securities and Exchange Board of India. It came into being in 1992.
The organized sector in Indian financial market is made up of the private, public and foreign banks, along with the co-operative banks. These banks, together, are called scheduled banks.
The NBFCs, or the Non Banking Financial Companies, together with the money-lenders and the bankers, individual or family-owned, make up the unorganized sector. People in rural and semi-urban areas prefer the unorganized sector, over the organized sector for getting finance for purposes like ceremonies and short term finance.
Tidel Park in Chennai is one of the new software parks, set up by the Indian government. These software parks are crucial parts of Special Economic Zone or SEZs, which provide business concerns with better infrastructure and tax benefits.
Following are some important facts of the Indian banking sector:
- the number of deposits went up 32.6 times in the years between 1971-91 compared to seven times between 1951-71
- the number of rural branches went up from 1,860 in 1969 to 32,270. Previously it was 22% of the entire banking sector and now it is 48%.
- number of branches went up to 98,910 in 2003 from 10,120 in 1969. In the same period the number of people covered per bank went down to 15,000 from 63,800