For instance, as against the a total of 881, 1125 and 1259 authorisations given by the RBI under the old policy regime during 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06, respectively, the number of authorisations issued under the new policy during 2006-07 was 2028.
Thus, as against the general perception that the new policy has been more restrictive in granting authorisations, the fact is that there has been a sharp increase of about 61 per cent in the total number of authorisations granted last year. I am afraid, however, that similar improvements can not be said about the performance of the banks in utilising the authorisations received.