INDIAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM: From Financial Neutrality to Financial Activism: Till the late 1960s, the role of financial intermediaries in general, and banks in particular, in the process of economic growth of a country was largely ignored. Influential work during the late 1960s and early 1970s showed that there exists a strong positive correlation b e t w e e n financial development and economic growth and highlighted the negative impact of 'financial repression' on the growth process With many side effects of fixed exchange rate system, floating exchange rate system was been adopted by the early 1970s as free trade, liberalized external capital movements, and relatively flexible use of the domestic monetary policy was need of the day. This motivated the free flow of capital across. Simultaneously, efforts were made to remove distortions in the domestic financial sector through elimination or containment of reserve requirements and interest rate regulations. All these factors helped the process of internationalization of financial markets. Financial development required the deepening and widening of the existing financial development required the deepening and widening of the existing financial markets as well as the introduction of new products and instruments to cater to the needs of savers and investors