About
60% of Indians lack financial accessibility: NABARD
Puducherry,
Jan 23: Around 60 per cent of India's population is deprived
of access to financial institutions, a top official of National
Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) said Wednesday.
In
most of the developed countries, this 'financial exclusion'
was, however, less than 15 per cent, said NABARD chief general
manager A Ramanathan while inaugurating a three-day international
conference on 'Micro Finance: A Tool to Eradicate Poverty'
at Pondicherry University here.
He
said that micro finance activities offered multifarious opportunities
for research, career training and as an alternative credit
delivery system for rural uplift.
Ramanathan
wanted universities and higher educational institutions to
offer courses in micro finance both at the graduation and
post-graduation level.
Vice
chancellor of Pondicherry University J A K Tareen said micro
finance programmes would relieve poor villagers of their backwardness
through financial accessibility. He said that women empowerment
was essential for the speedy progress of the nation.
With
the affluent sections overshadowing the poor in a globalised
and market-driven economy, there was every need to address
the economic issues of the poor villagers.
Chief
general manager of Small Industries Development Bank of India
(SIDBI) south zone, Chennai K M Nair said banks would consider
the poor as entry-level customer and the Sidbi had been helping
promotion of micro finance activities.
SIDBI
was adopting a scientific approach to augment the capacity
of the borrowers through a flexible approach.
Around
250 delegates from different parts of the country and also
those from the UK, the US, Germany, Sudan and Bangladesh participated
in the deliberations.
Bureau
Report
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