Tag: rural development

How Nabard fast-tracked approval time to just 5 days during the pandemic

Banking & Finance

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As the Covid-19 pandemic starved State governments, cooperative banks and other agencies that depend on it for funds, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has re-engineered its functioning to hasten the process of sanctioning project proposals. This has helped the State governments and other agencies to roll out the projects faster during the pandemic.

“From the time a full-fledged project proposal reaches us, it should not take not more than five days at the head office to get the approval. This has helped the States to fast track the project rollouts,” GR Chintala, Chairman of Nabard, told BusinessLine.

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The bank has brought in IT applications to increase the pace of approvals. “Earlier, there used to be no fixed timelines (to approve the project proposals). Now, it should be under five days,” he said. The bank, which reported a growth rate of 24 per cent in the pandemic hit 2020-21 to reach a business of ₹6.50-lakh crore, has set a target of ₹7.5-lakh crore.

Push for better health infra

“What we noticed is a huge uptick in the demand from the State governments for developing and creating medical education and health infrastructure,” he said.

The pandemic, he said, has highlighted the need for better healthcare infrastructure to tackle the challenge much better. Besides the regular demand for RIDF funds in the areas of connectivity, irrigation and agriculture, the Nabard has seen a new demand for funds from the States for setting up hospitals and medical colleges.

“For the first time, all of the ₹30,000 crore earmarked for the fund had been exhausted during the pandemic year. Seeing the huge appetite for funds under this head, we have requested the Union government to increase the size of the fund. We got the nod to increase it to ₹40,000 crore for this year,” he said.

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As against a target of ₹40,000 crore, the Nabard has already completed sanctions worth ₹25,000 crore so far. “We are confident that we will achieve the target and seek for more funds for disbursal in the next financial year,” he said.

The bank also witnessed a spike in demand for funds under the NIDA (Nabard Infrastructure Development Assistance). “Last year, we sanctioned about ₹22,000 crore under NIDA. Many State governments tapped this fund to set up medical colleges and infrastructure,” he said.

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Rajesh Dahiya quits Axis Bank, to pursue ESG initiatives, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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Axis Bank executive director and strategy head Rajesh Dahiya has quit the private lender to pursue work in theEnvironmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) sector. Dahiya who will be associated with the bank in his current role till December 31, 2021, will continue to participate in the social work carried out by Axis Foundation. Dahiya who has quit his executive role at the lender, has sought early retirement from the services of the bank, to pursue personal and professional interests outside his executive corporate career.

“I have requested the Axis Bank board to be redeemed from the executive position at the bank, but I will continue to be associated with the bank in various other capacity, like I will continue to be on the board of Axis Bank foundation and a few other bank subsidiaries including Max board,” Rajesh Dahiya, ED, Axis Bank told ET. “I will continue to lead the sustainability initiative for the bank.”

Dahiya has consented to be closely associated with the Bank through specific projects and assignments. He will continue as a key board member for associates & subsidiaries including Axis Bank Foundation, Axis Trustee and Max Life.

Dahiya had joined the Bank in June 2010, after a successful stint of 20 years across various group companies of the Tata Group. During his over 11 years stint with the Bank, he has worked in various Corporate functions and was last responsible for Corporate Centre of the Bank as Executive Director on the Board of the Bank.

“I have devoted a large part of the last 10 years in the social sector and want to spend some time and my personal resources directly working with rural India, women livelihood and sustainability,” Dahiya said.



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Report, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Personal Finance

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Mumbai, A majority of Indian companies (57 per cent) believe there is a need to revive the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector, which has been hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to boost rural employment, according to a report. According to the report by Genius Consultants, titled the ‘Sudden Rise of Rural Unemployment‘, the country’s economy was adversely affected by the pandemic and almost all sectors and industries were impacted, especially the MSME sector that faced a huge set-back.

The report, which is based on a survey, said most of the respondents believed that the reason behind the high unemployment rate is the lack of employment opportunities available in the areas concerned.

The survey is covered 1,100 business leaders between August 1 and September 10. They include those in sectors such as banking and finance, construction and engineering, education/ teaching/ training, FMCG, hospitality, HR solutions, IT, ITeS, and business processing outsourcing, logistics, and manufacturing, among others.

The report further showed that more than 57 per cent of the total respondents strongly agreed that the revival of MSMEs would aid in improving the current employment situation.

About 14.3 per cent of the respondents believe that the reason behind the rural unemployment was the lockdown restrictions, and another 14.3 per cent said it was due to the rise in the COVID-19 cases, according to the report.

The remaining respondents believed that it is a result of all reasons mentioned above that led to a spike in unemployment in rural areas, it added.

Meanwhile, the report found that over 85 per cent of respondents stated that the manufacturing sector, which has been witnessing a slowdown, has been a major contributor to the rise in unemployment in the rural areas.

As factories and production are one of the major contributors of rural employment and with the pandemic halting businesses, the manufacturing sector has majorly impacted rural unemployment compared to the service sector, it said.

Genius Consultants Chairman and Managing Director R P Yadav said, “Rural unemployment has always been a major concern even before the pandemic. With businesses and manufacturing slowing down, the situation has deteriorated even further.”

Yadav added that there is a dire need to bring in a swift course of action to elevate employment opportunities in the rural parts of the country.



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NABARD wants state to speed up implementation of bank’s scheme, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Banking & Finance

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BHOPAL: National bank for agriculture and rural development (NABARD) wants the state government to speed up implementation of the schemes funded by the bank in MP.

Chairman of the bank GR Chitala said that almost half of the state’s cooperative bodies also need improvement. Talking to media here on Thursday, Chitala sighted the examples of the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for implementing the NABARD schemes.

He has been on a six days’ visit to the state where he would Dewas and Indore also where the bank has funded many schemes. Talking about the state of affairs of the cooperative banks in the state, he hinted that 50 % of them need improvement in functioning.

He said that of 4800 cooperative banks in the state, almost half of them need technical upgradation for better and efficient functioning of the cooperative sector . He said that about 38 % of farmers did not have Kisan credit cards in the state and there are a variety of reasons.

“ Which is why a large number of farmers have not been able to get benefits of the government’s scheme”, he said Replying to a query on the NABARS’s help to the state , Chitala said it has disbursed Rs 55759 crore towards crop Loan covering more than 71 lakh farmers during the last few years in MP.

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