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earch elaborates on certain approaches to making the Indian Financial Services Industry more competitive through the required regulatory reforms or looking at possible reduction of governmental interest in this sector.

The report also profiles the major contributors to the industry and their relative performances which lead up to the report's section on the future outlook of the Indian Financial Services Industry.

SOCIAL FACTOR

The draft report of the Committee on Financial Sector Reforms, chaired by Raghuram Rajan, which came out a few months ago, followed on last year's Mistry committee report on developing Mumbai as an international financial centre. The reports are complementary in their focus—on domestic and international markets, respectively—and very similar in perspective and recommendations. The Rajan committee was commissioned by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Other policymakers have also been discussing the extension of financial sector reforms to the masses. RBI Governor YV Reddy, in an interview on October 31, 2007, said that 'The democratization of the banking system is vital, not just provision of credit. The financial system, banking in particular, is like giving elementary school education. Therefore, the highest priority needs to be given to financial inclusion coupled with financial literacy and credit counseling.' Also in October 2007, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, in an interview with a McKinsey & Co director, made an even broader statement, in discussing the charge of the Rajan committee: 'The idea is to take an integrated view of the financial system: looking at banks, capital markets, insurance, microfinance issues, and the whole issue of financial inclusion.... I think financial-sector reforms have to include things like: what's the best financial system to make sure that farmers can get access to credit? What's the best way of making health insurance readily available? What's an environment in which different types of risks can be effectively countered? And how can you ensure inclusiveness in all this?'

Fortunately, while stock markets and high finance may seem to be a far cry from rural credit and crop insurance, the principles that govern the provision of financial services are the same at every level. Basically, financial services involve meeting two objectives: reallocating income across time and across different contingencies or states of nature. Heterogeneity of wants and initial endowments makes markets in achieving these reallocations possible. The inherent time delays and uncertainties associated with financial services are a major source of challenges for smooth market functioning. Hence, financial markets are always going to be subject to turbulence (to use Alan Greenspan's term). The triumph of modern economies has been to tame this turbulence through good governance, while continually adding complexity and sophistication to financial markets.

Financial market institutions provide matching services, pre-transaction information and screening, post-transaction monitoring and enforcement, and basic transaction completion. Since these can all be quite complex, there are strong economies of specialization through training and accumulated experience, as well as simple economies of scale that arise from the fixed costs of making a market or creating a platform. These economies, as well as the benefits of r