The pace of financial inclusion does not seem to be as fast as had been projected by banks at the beginning of the drive. So far it has only been Corporation Bank which has been able to meet the target before scheduled time.

Banks in Karnataka have been found to lag behind in their targets for financial inclusion which was allotted to them by Reserve Bank of India. With the target set for reaching out to 2,253 villages by March 2011, the coverage has only been achieved for 1,075 villages so far (till December 2010).

The basic idea behind financial inclusion is to make financial services reach out to under and unprivileged sections of the society at affordable means. In India the major tool being used for financial inclusion is opening of no frills savings accounts for people in the unbanked areas.

According to Chairman of State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC), Basant Seth, "Certain discrepancies like duplication or overlapping of villages, inclusion of villages already having branches, and such others were observed and subsequently the target was revised. Thee banks have now been asked to submit the monthly progress made in new formats prescribed by RBI and ministry of finance indicating revised villages."

Regarding mode of operations for banks in Karnataka, RBI had offered two model; one district-one bank model or one district-many banks model. It has been found that one district-one bank model is giving better results in terms of performance, indicated Ajay Seth, finance secretary, government of Karnataka.