By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday praised the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), saying the central bank had made the national credit system more sensitive to the needs of the rural population.
“It played a very important role in the establishment of agricultural finance corporations, subsequently it gave birth to NABARD,” the prime minister said while releasing a book titled “Perspectives on Central Banking – Governors Speak”.
NABARD or the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development provides and regulates credit and other facilities for the promotion and development of agriculture, small-scale industries, village industries and other allied economic activities in rural areas.
“The Reserve Bank played a very important role to make our credit system more sensitive to the needs of our farmers and our rural community,” he said.
“In the same way, when the IDBI had to be set up, it was once again the Reserve Bank which took the lead and so was for the National Housing Bank,” he added.
National Housing Bank disbursed Rs.2,000 crore this fiscal to finance rural housing. On the other hand IDBI, formerly the Industrial Development Bank of India, finances new projects as well for expansions and modernization of existing units.