The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned a grant of ₹10.33 crore to commercial banks, regional rural banks (RRBs) and rural cooperative banks in respect of various financial inclusion initiatives in Andhra Pradesh. Of this, ₹6.42 crore was released during the year 2019-20, according to bank Chief General Manager (CGM) S. Selvaraj.
Mr. Selvaraj, in a release on Monday, said NABARD disbursed ₹303.32 lakh for supporting financial and digital literacy camps conducted by commercial banks, RRBs and rural cooperative banks during the year 2019-20.
Emphasis was given to financial literacy in backward Districts. These camps have provided hands-on experience on various technological products such as micro ATMs, mobile banking, unified payments interface, etc., to the rural community, he said.
Street plays
The NABARD provided a grant support of ₹52.98 lakh to various banks to conduct street plays in vernacular media to spread
financial literacy in an interactive and engaging manner. A grant assistance of ₹151.17 lakh was disbursed to rural cooperative banks for deployment of 11 mobile demonstration vans in the State with an objective of spreading financial literacy and demonstration of various digital banking technologies for rural poor, he said.
In order to facilitate Aadhaar enrolments and updation in rural areas, NABARD extended a grant support of ₹ 22.50 lakh to RRBs for the establishment of 30 Aadhaar-enabled centres by these banks in the State in 2019-20. In continuing the efforts towards providing banking facilities to remotest areas, an amount of ₹54 lakh was released to Chaitanya Godavari Grameena Bank for the purchase of micro ATMs, he added.
