Rural credit cooperatives in India were born more than 100 years ago as a state initiative with promulgation of the Cooperative Societies Act by the then British Government. Cooperative Credit Societies were organized with the only objective of providing credit to the farmer members at a reasonable rate of interest to emancipate them from the clutches of money lenders. After the amendment of the Cooperative Societies Act in 1912, the Cooperative Credit Societies were federated into Central Cooperative banks (CCBs) to mobilize resources to meet the credit requirement of its farmer members.

In this research paper the financial performance of District Cooperative Banks (DCBs) in India in general and Uttar Pradesh in particular, for the period of 2002-03 to 2010-11 are analyzed. In the present paper an attempt is made to make a comparative analysis of 10 selected DCBs operating in Uttar Pradesh. The financial data has been tested with the simple statistical techniques like mean, standard deviation, percentages, graphs, etc. along with advanced statistical tools like compound growth rate, ratio analysis and trend equations to arrive at the logical outcome. The analysis revealed that in almost all the variables we observed an increasing trend from 2002-03 to 2010-11 with few exceptions where we observed stagnancy in almost all the financial indicators over the years.

KEYWORDS: District Cooperative Banks, growth, overdues, liquid assets.