Banks may be given incentive to extend loans in backward areas to promote financial inclusion: MK Jain

14 Nov 2019 Evaluate

In a bid to promote financial inclusion, RBI Deputy Governor MK Jain has made a case for incentivizing banks to extend loans to poor in backward areas. He also urged the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to think of steps by which funds like Rural Infrastructure Development Fund can be earmarked to the most backward credit starved regions of the country to ensure faster development.

Jain said despite impressive growth in formal agriculture granted, there are still several challenges which need to be tackled. He also said that data on the average loan taken by agricultural households indicated that 72 percent of the credit requirement was met by institutional sources and 28 percent from non-institutional sources. Further, he said the analysis of state-wise flow of institutional agriculture credit has revealed uneven distribution of credit among states, compared to their corresponding share in their overall output. To a certain extent, he said such regional disparity is on account of variation in credit absorbtion capacity of these regions.

Stressing the other challenge, RBI Deputy Governor said the problem of financial inclusion gets aggravated due to lack of legal framework for landless cultivators as the absence of documentary evidence becomes a major hindrance for extending credit to this segment of the farming community who take up cultivation work on oral lease. He also pointed out that these issues and challenges impinge on the efficiency inclusiveness and sustainability of the agriculture credit system, which is a matter of concern.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×