Soon after Raghuram Rajan took charge as the 23rd Governor of RBI, he had said that an external committee would be headed by former central bank Governor Bimal Jalan to screen the 26 applications for bank licences.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received 26 applications from different institutions, which are in the fray to float banks. The last date of application for a new bank licence ended on Monday.
The government hopes that the new banking licenses will be awarded by March 31st, 2014, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Takru said.