Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday chaired a meeting to review the performance of ten Regional Rural Banks of the Southern Region, covering the five states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana and the Union Territory of Puducherry, in Bengaluru.

The meeting focused on business performance, upgrading digital technology services, and fostering business growth in activities allied to agriculture and micro and small industry.

Given the crucial role of RRBs in supporting the rural economy, Mrs Sitharaman urged RRBs to increase credit disbursement under various Central flagship schemes such as MUDRA, PM Vishwakarma, etc, with the active support of their sponsor banks.

She directed the RRBs to increase their share in ground level agriculture credit disbursement with special focus on allied agriculture activities like dairy, animal husbandry, fisheries etc, and to take necessary steps to realise the full potential of allied agriculture activities in the region.

RRBs and sponsor banks were specially directed to work with respective state government departments to increase credit disbursement to fisheries sector in Kerala and dairying sector in Telangana.

Mrs Sitharaman acknowledged RRBs for the demonstrable improvement in their financial performance and technology upgradation ever since regular review was initiated in 2022.

During the review, the importance of enhancing the Current Account Savings Account (CASA) deposits was underlined, reinforcing the need for RRBs in the southern region to mobilise CASA deposits to further accelerate the pace of sustainable credit growth.

Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, while outlining the Prime Minister’s vision of financial inclusion, urged banks to give maximum thrust to achievement under Financial Inclusion schemes of the Centre.

Mrs Sitharaman also noted the significant role played by RRBs in financial inclusion in Southern region and urged them to continue their efforts towards saturation under Financial Inclusion (FI) schemes of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Atal Pension Yojana (APY), etc. by achieving respective targets.

She directed sponsor banks to rework the targets of FI schemes along with RRBs and further asked banks to launch special drives to operationalise inoperative accounts under PMJDY.
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