Banking in India — The 1969 Nationalisation, Every Bank Type and Who Regulates Whom

Every general awareness paper carries a banking question, and it is almost never about economics. It is about dates, committees and who regulates whom — the year the RBI opened, the two rounds of nationalisation, which committee gave us the Regional Rural Banks. That makes banking one of the most reliably scoring areas in the syllabus, because the answer is a fact, not a judgement.

The trouble is that students learn it as a list and forget it as a list. Learn it instead as a story with four turning points: 1935, when the RBI opened its doors; 1949, when the government took the RBI over; 1969 and 1980, when it took over the banks themselves; and 1991 onwards, when it let private banks back in. Every institution you have to name — SBI, RRBs, NABARD, SIDBI, payments banks — hangs off one of those four moments. Once the story is in place, the dates stop competing with each other.

1. The Reserve Bank of India was established on the recommendation of which body?

2. How many banks were nationalised in the first round on 19 July 1969?

3. Which was the first Regional Rural Bank in India?

4. NABARD was established in which year?

5. What is the maximum deposit a payments bank may hold per individual customer?

6. Which currency note in India is NOT issued by the Reserve Bank of India?

7. A bank loan is classified as a Non-Performing Asset when repayment is overdue for more than —

8. The Imperial Bank of India was renamed the State Bank of India in which year?