Archive for the ‘Mainstream Finance’ Category

By Naagesh Naaraayana Microfinance Focus, Aug. 16, 2009: Nearly half of farmer households in India do not have access to credit either from the banks or other non-banking sources, said RBI deputy governor Dr. K.C.Chakrabarty, speaking at Mint conference on the theme ‘Banking: Key Driver for Inclusive Growth’, held recently in Chennai. This underscores the urgent need for financial inclusion in the country where only 13% are availing loans from the banks in the income bracket of less than Rs.50,000 and 53% people are still taking loans from the institutional and non-institutional sources only for emergency purposes, he noted. As of 2007 figures, one branch caters the banking needs of 16,000 population, leaving millions still unbanked or unaddressed, he said. A quick look at the data on the sources of loans and also percentage of persons having annual income less than Rs.50,000 show that 28.3% had bank accounts and only 13% had availed of bank finance and even in higher income bracket exclusion existed, he remarked and added that the recent focus of the bank has been on providing access to affordable banking services to every person. Full story

By Naagesh Naaraayana Microfinance Focus, Aug. 12, 2009: Former RBI governor and head of the committee on financial inclusion C. Rangarajan has been reappointed as chairman of Indian Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (EAC) for the second time, said a government statement on Tuesday. Rangarajan headed the committee on financial inclusion before becoming a member of the Rajya Sabha, upper house of parliament, last year.  His reappointment will revive the hopes of microfinance community in India to expedite the work on microfinance legislation that is long due. Full story