Banks' role critical in driving rural economy: Saxena

NABARD unveiled a credit potential of Rs 42,243.83 crore for Himachal Pradesh in its state credit seminar held here today. Inaugurated by Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena, the event saw participation of key officials, including Chief General Manager, NABARD, Vivek Pathania and Deputy General Manager, RBI, Pitambar Agarwal and Pradeep Anand Keshari, Convenor, state level bankers’ committee.

In his welcome address, Pathania highlighted NABARD’s role in economic development of the state, with Rs 4,000 crore financial support to banks and state government for agriculture and infrastructure development. He highlighted the new initiative of NABARD for development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and setting up of 1.5 LLPD milk plant in Dagwar, Kangra, which was inaugurated today by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Pathania also spoke about NABARD’s collaboration with the central government to modernize cooperative societies, with 870 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) computerised in Phase 1 and another 919 set for Phase 2. He emphasised on the importance of financial literacy, noting that over 5,500 digital literacy camps have been organised, along with the installation of micro ATMs and POS machines, and support to 20 Centres for Financial Literacy (CFL) at the block level funded from Financial Inclusion Fund.

Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary stressed the importance of banks for rural growth, calling for enhanced credit flow. He highlighted the critical role of banks in driving the rural economy of Himachal Pradesh, where 90 per cent of the population resides in rural areas and agriculture forms the economic backbone. Saxena called for a “green revolution” in agriculture to accelerate the sector’s transformation.