Chapter-II
Review of Literature
An attempt is being made in this chapter to review the literature concerning the
growth, organization and performance of the NBFCs in India. This gives an
opportunity to know the contributions of authors and scholars in the field. This may
help us in assessing the relevance of their cdntributions for this study.
Verma (1997) in his book "Concept, Practice and Procedure of Non-Banking
Financial Companies" throws light on the role of NBFCs in various sectors of the
economy and examines their contributions to the economic growth of the country by
serving as king-pins in the financial system of the Indian Economy. The author
examines the engagement of these NBFCs in various activities rendering both fund
based services including lease finance, hire purchase finance, consumer finance,
working capital loans, inter corporate investment, bill discounting, factoring, venture
capital financing, mutual funds, housing finance etc, and the non-fund based
services which include managing mergers, amalgamations, lease broking, corporate
counselling and capital restructuring, project counselling, credit rating liaisoning,
managing fixed deposits, money market operations, dealings in foreign exchange,
money charging and doing other business for the depositors etc. This work explains
the structure, regulation and operations of NBFCs in India in a systematic manner
elaborating laws applicable to NBFCs, practices and procedures in vogue in NBFCs.
The work, though rich and valuable does not help us in understanding the particular
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problems faced by most of the NBFCs in the market for the last 5 to 6 years and fails
to examine the main causes of failure of NBFCs working in India.
Sarkar and Agrawal (1997) in their work "Banking :The Challenges of
Deregulation' refer to the financial sector reform in India and the role of non-bank
financial intermediaries in the mobilization of funds. The authors refer to the
creation of a competitive environment both for the banks and the NBFCs as well.
Kuchhal (1998) in his work "Corporate Finance" examines the working of the
financial sector of the Indian economy during the last one decade after the reforms
were introduced. The author provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of new
developments affecting the various spheres of corporate finance and in that context
analyses financial sector reforms, Corporate Securities, Marketing of Securities,
Merchant Banking, Non-Bank Finance Companies, Credit Rating Agencies, Capital
Market, Stock Exchange, OTC Exchange in India, Public Deposits, Foreign Capital
and Collaborations, Unit Trust of India, Development and Finance Co-operations. The
book may also be used as a supplement to my financial management. Though the
work offers a comprehensive and critical review of the Indian financial sector, its
study of the Non-Bank Finance Companies provides only the basic concepts about
NBFCs and the Regulation Act of RBI relating to these companies. The author makes
no contribution to further our understanding of NBFCs and their working either at
the national level or at the state level.
Pandey (1999) in his work "Venture Capital" examines the developmental role and
the factors contributing to the venture capital in India. The work presents a detailed
case analysis of the Venture Capital experience in India by examining -
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i) The strategic role of Venture Capital in the development of technology
innovative entrepreneurship and small enterprises in India.
ii) The development process of Venture Capital by a systematic analysis of
the practices and policies adopted in India.
iii) The policy initiative necessary for the success of Venture Capital in
developing countries based on the Indian experience.
The work is very useful to understand an important segment of India's emerging
financial system, that is, Venture Capital. This, however, does not help us in relating
this experience to the organizational and operational aspects of the NBFCs in India.
Khan (1999) in his work "Financial Services" examines the various financial
services provided by Non-Banking Financial Companies in the Indian market. The
efficiency of any financial system to an extent also depends upon the quality and
range of financial services provided by the Non-Banking Financial Companies.
Although some of these services in India are at a nascent stage, they represent
development of considerable significance for the financial system.
Khan discusses about the non banking financial companies/intermediaries which
provide the services as well as their users, the legal procedures, tax and accounting
procedures. In fact the work provides a judicious mixture of theory and business
practices of the contemporary Indian Financial Services sector. It also gives an
overview of Non-Banking Financial Companies within the framework stipulated by
RBI Act and RBI directions.
Though this is an excellent effort to understand the financial market of the Indian
economy and different services provided by the financial sector of the Indian
economy, it does not give any idea about the peculiar problems faced by the NBFCs
in different places of the country. The financial market is not uniform in the country.
In some places "the NBFCs are doing good business and in other places their
performance is very poor. The work does not offer us any insight about the working
of the NBFCs and their problems in our state.
Rao (2000) in 'India's Financial System : Liberalisation and Reform' refers to the
'widening and deepening' of the financial sector in India and in that context
examines financial reforms following the recommendations of the Chakravarty
Committee Report (1985) and the Narasimham Committee Report (1991). While
many of the important issues like the Asset-Liability Management (ALM), Asset-
Reconstruction Fund (ARF), Prudential Supervision, Systemic Stability and the Capital
Market etc have been discussed in the paper, there is, however, no discussion of the
emergence of NBFC in the Indian Financial market after the launching of economic
reforms in 1991.
Tadas (2000) in his paper 'Structure and Growth of India's Financial Sector' has not
made any discussion relating to the growth and functioning of NBFCs in the Indian
financial market.
Tadas (2000) in another paper 'Output and Productivity in India's Financial Sector',
however, looks at the non-banking financial institutions as a part of the banking and
insurance sector and attempts an estimation of value addition by the Non-Banking
Financial Companies and Corporations.
Gordan and Natarajan (2003) in their work "Financial Market and Services" look
at the developments in the financial market and relate these developments like the
financial innovations in terms of products and instruments, adoption of modern
technologies, opening up of the market to the global economy and streamlining of
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the regulatory framework etc to the working of India's financial market. The work is
exhausting as it deals with the (i) The financial system in India, (ii) Money Market,
(iii) New Issues Market, (iv) Secondary Market, (v) Securities and Exchange Board of
India (vi) Depository System.
The work also throws light on (i) Financial'Services (ii) Merchant Banking (iii) Hire
Purchase (iv) Leasing (v) Venture Capital (vi) Mutual Funds (vii) Discounting
factoring and forfeiting and (vii) Credit Rating. The work does not devote much
space or writing to study the working of NBFCs in the fast changing financial
situation in India.
Stijn (2005) in his paper 'How Important are Financial Markets in Spurring Growth
and Investment?' examines the catalytic role of the financial markets in promoting
development. The role of NBFCs in particular has not been examined.
Economic Times (29.04.1998) highlights the need to have a strong regulatory
framework for NBFCs and in that light feels the creation of compulsory deposit
insurance scheme for NBFCs by government and strengthening of the Securities and
Exchange Board of India's powers so that it can award damages to investors who
are victims of the malpractices of capital market intermediaries like the NBFCs.
Economic Times (09.06.1998) while speaking about the failure of JVG Finance
refers to the efforts of the RBI to start criminal activities against the group's
chairman Mr. V.K. Sharma and three directors for gross violation of Non-Banking
Financial Company Rules and allegedly taking the public for a ride.
The company is accused of collecting Rs. 88.87 crores while it was eligible to
collect only Rs. 3 crore.
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The company's Net Owned Fund (NOF) was Rs. 11.33 lakh with inter corporate
deposits (ICDs) worth Rs. 1.51 crore.
Economic Times (05.05.2000) discusses the decision of the Reserve Bank of
India in raising the minimum net worth required by NBFCs for registration with RBI
from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 2 crores.
Economic Times (16.11.2001) gives relevant data on fund mobilization by a state
owned NBFCs [West Bengal Government owned finance company]. The article not
only gives data on total public deposits mobilized by this state owned company but
also gives data about the total outstanding public deposits mobilized by NBFCs
sector in India.
Economic Times (April, 2002) throws light on revision of RBI regulatory norms
relating to the NBFCs. The RBI has decided to introduce changes in norms for
accounting for investment and provisioning against non-performing assets (NPAs) in
response to advise received from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
The Reserve Bank of India has also prohibited NBFCs for extending fresh loans and
making new investments in case of default in repayment of public deposits.
RBI yearly Bulletin (2001) examines the business of the NBFCs in the country as
a whole and then gives data on region wise composition of deposits held by NBFCs,
asset profile of NBFCs, distribution of assets of NBFCs according to activity, Net
owned funds of NBFCs and capital adequacy ratio. This helps the scholars and
investigators considerably. But to examine the working of NBFCs in a specific region
or state, the data given are not enough.
Financial Development Bulletin (September, 2000) examines new tools for
assessing the soundness of a financial system. It explains about Macro Prudential
Indicators (MPI) which defined broadly, are indicators of the health and stability of
the financial system and which can therefore help countries to assess their Banking
System's vulnerability to crisis. In recent years an increasing amount of work has
been done on such indicators as part of efforts to strengthen the international
financial system.
All these studies broaden our understanding of India's financial system. They do not
however help us in acquiring a critical understanding of the functioning of NBFCs in
different regions including Orissa. We need to have a study that will explain the
success and the failure of NBFCs and the causes thereof. The present study is an
attempt to understand the behavior, performance, financial soundness and health of
the NBFCs in the state of Orissa.