Role of Regional Rural Banks in Economic Development

The importance of the rural banking in the economic development of a country cannot be overlooked. As Gandhiji said “Real India lies in villages,” and village economy is the backbone of Indian economy. Without the upliftment of the rural economy as well as the rural people of our country, the objectives of economic planning cannot be achieved. In fact, the real growth of Indian economy lied in the emancipation of rural masses from acute poverty, unemployment, and socio-economic backwardness. Keeping this end in view, various important plans and programmes of rural development have been conceived and implemented by the government of India since the commencement of first five-year plan from 1951-56. But an appraisal of the achievement of these programmes clearly reveals that much programmes failed to achieve the desired objectives due to the backward economic condition and lack of adequate finance to the poor people in the rural areas. Hence, bank and other financial institutions are of vital importance for development of rural economy of a country. The present study is a modest attempt to make an appraisal of the credit needs of the rural people and the way Regional Rural Bank, i.e., Arunachal Pradesh Rural Bank, has been extending its service to meet the same in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. It deals with the performance evaluation of Arunachal Pradesh. Rural Bank (APRB) for the economic development of the state. Further, an attempt has also been made to study the growth and performance of Scheduled Commercial Banks with special emphasis on Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) in Indian and North-East Region.