A review of priority sector advances by banks in India as Well as Punjab (India)

The present paper is related to performance of public and private sector banks in Punjab as well India with respect to priority sector lending. For the purpose of study secondary data has been collected from Basic Statistical Returns of Commercial Banks in India, Trends and Progress of Banking in India, Statistica. Abstract of Punjab, Agenda Paper on State Level Bankers’ Committee Meetings, and various web sites. The period from 1990–91 to 2007–08 has been chosen for the study. The study found that performance of public sector banks was better in India than Punjab regarding deposit mobilization and credit deployment while performance of private sector banks was better in Punjab in terms of all the parameters of the study. Public sector banks were giving increasing attention to total priority sector, agricultural sector and other priority sector in India and; to small scale industrial sector in Punjab while private sector banks were giving greater attention to all the sectors in Punjab than India during the study period. Further, public sector banks represented greater variability in India than Punjab in terms of percentage share of agricultural advances and small scale industrial advances to total priority sector advances while private sector banks showed greater variability in Punjab than India in terms of percentage share of priority sector advances to total advances and; percentage share of agricultural advances, small scale industrial advances and other priority sector advances to total priority sector advances during the reference period.