It’s all about money – the evolution of banking sector in India

It’s all about money – the evolution of banking sector in India

Subject :History

Section: Modern India

• Robert Clive could have never met with success, had it not been for the banking firm of the Jagat Seths. Similarly, one of the key reasons that Delhi eventually fell in 1858, a year into the First War of Independence, was the tacit support the British got from the Hindu financiers of Chandni Chowk
• In Chennai, the Nagarathars, the Arya Vysyas, the Gujaratis and the Marwaris are commemorated forever in the area known as Sowcarpet. This was from where theSahukars or money lenders assisted the Company’s trade.
• The Chola economy flourished on trade and conquest and the funds from one went to finance the other. By the 12th century, from Periya Puranam, we find money lending and banking was firmly established. The story of Thirugnanasambandar in this monumental work has reference to a merchant of Vaippur who loaned mone
• In the 16th century work Amuktamalyada, the story of Andal, King Krishnadeva Raya describes the business community of Madurai
• The Indian Overseas Bank was promoted by the Sir MCtMuthiahChettiar family in 1937. But this did not mean that British banks were on the wane. They catered to their exclusively British clientele. The three Presidencies had their own banks and in
• The matter dragged till 1921 when the Imperial Bank of India was formed by their amalgamation.
• Then in 1935, the country got its own financial governing body — the Reserve Bank of India.
• Independence brought about many changes, including the nationalisation of the Imperial Bank in 1952, and changing its name to State Bank of India. And it had to change its ways – to suit a new polity with new aims. But the fundamental tenets of banking have remained unchanged over the centuries.