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Informist, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024

 

NEW DELHI – Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday chaired a meeting in Bengaluru to review the performance of 10 regional rural banks of the southern region. The 10 regional rural banks covered the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana and the union territory of Puducherry.

 

The finance minister urged the regional rural banks to increase credit disbursement under various government flagship schemes with the active support of their sponsor banks. She also asked the banks to increase their share in ground level agricultural credit disbursement with special focus on allied agricultural activities like dairy, animal husbandry, fisheries, and to take necessary steps to realise the full potential of allied agricultural activities in the region.

 

Sitharaman acknowledged improvement in financial performance and upgrade in technology of the regional rural banks ever since the regular review was started in 2022. The minister emphasised the importance of increasing the current account savings account deposits, reinforcing the need for regional rural banks in the southern region to mobilise current account savings account deposits to further increase the pace of sustainable credit growth.

 

She also urged the regional rural banks to continue efforts towards saturation under financial inclusion government schemes by achieving respective targets. She also asked banks to launch special drives to operationalise inoperative accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. 

 

Sitharaman also urged the banks to devise a strategy for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises credit with customised products, aligning with cluster activities and conduct special outreach programmes with convergence and awareness regarding the various government schemes. Regional rural banks should explore to leverage digital platforms of Small Industries Development Bank of India and seek MSME refinance from it, she said.

 

The finance minister also directed the Department of Financial Services to look at the recruitment rules for regional rural banks and evaluate it to amend suitably to ensure knowledge and proficiency of local language is present in the candidates.

 

She also asked state governments to give their views on proposal of amalgamation of regional rural banks on principle of "One State-One RRB".  End

 

Reported by Pratiksha

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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