NABARD

Why in news?

• To help mitigate the impact of the pandemic and aid economic revival, the RBI said it would extend fresh support of ?50,000 crore to the All-India Financial Institutions for new lending in FY22.
• Of the 50,000 crore NABARD will be provided a special liquidity facility (SLF) of ?25,000 crore for one year to support agriculture and allied activities, the rural non-farm sector and non-banking financial companies-micro finance institutions.

About NABARD:

• It is an apex development and specialized bank established by Act of Parliament.
• It also functions as an apex regulatory agency for Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance .
• Its main focus is to uplift rural India by increasing the credit flow for elevation of agriculture & rural non-farm sector.
• It was established based on the recommendations of the Committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the chairmanship of B. Shivaraman.
• It replaced the Agricultural Credit Department (ACD) and Rural Planning and Credit Cell (RPCC) of Reserve Bank of India, and Agricultural Refinance and Development Corporation (ARDC).
• NABARD today is fully owned by Government of India.
• It seeks to promote sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural development through participative financial and non-financial interventions, innovations, technology and institutional development.
• The Self-Help Group (SHG) Bank Linkage Project launched by NABARD in 1992 is one of the world’s largest micro finance project.

Prelims Question

Consider the following regarding NABARD:
1.It was established based on recommendations of B. Shivaraman.
2.It was established by an act of parliament.
Choose the correct statements from the codes given below:
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to the Prelims Question