This refers to the editorial “Stop, look, proceed” ( Business Line , July 3).

While many citizens, especially in the metros, are fortunate enough to have easy access to banking, many are left virtually untouched by the banking sector in the rural areas, especially in far-flung regions of the country's north-eastern States.

To nurture truly sustainable and inclusive growth, it has been repeatedly highlighted that the country should pursue the goal of universal banking, making sure through policy — and its proper implementation — that banking facilities are available even in the remote areas that have poor access to such services, as well as to all economic strata of people.

In the future, for the Central/State governments, drafting various financial schemes should be the first step, followed by putting in place a unified delivery mechanism to take such schemes to the people for whom they are really meant. A far-reaching banking system is the right way to go about this.

The Reserve Bank of India should carefully check the track record and credentials of the bank-licence seekers.

At the same time, the central bank may stipulate that potential licence-seekers must open a substantial number of branches in the rural areas, especially where there are no traces of banking operations as yet.

Moreover, granting a banking licence to the Department of Posts will certainly augur well for rural development because of the postal system’s ubiquitous presence in rural India.

S. Lakshminarayanan,

Puvanur, Cuddalore, TN

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