Banking and Rural Development

The importance of the rural banking in the economic development of a country cannot be ignored. As India lives in the rural areas without the upliftment of the rural people, the objectives of economic planning cannot be achieved. In fact the real growth of the Indian economy depends on the eradication poverty, unemployment and socio-economic backwardness from the rural areas. Keeping this in view various plans and programs of rural development have been conceived and implemented by the government of India since the commencement of the first five-year plan from 1951-56. But many of these plans and programs failed to achieve the desired objectives because of the lack of adequate finance to the poor people in the rural areas. Finally, the Regional Rural Banks were established to provide credit to the rural people who are not economically strong enough, especially the small and marginal farmers, artisans, agricultural laborers and even small entrepreneurs. The success of any institutions there should be a periodic appraisal and evaluation, so as to adopt the appropriate polices to make the institutions more effective.