Given the preponderance of agriculture and allied activities and high frequency of natural calamities, group lending should be encouraged.
In this process, all the stake-holders – banks, the State Government and the Reserve Bank – need to work in close co-ordination: banks by ensuring that the BCs are active and by gradually increasing the number of brick and mortar branches; the State Government by ensuring that social benefit transfers progressively take place through bank accounts; and the Reserve Bank by effective monitoring and active co-ordination of the financial inclusion action plan in the State.