The Hindu Business Line : Back rural entrepreneurs, banks told

The Minister for Rural Development, Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (2nd from left), flanked by the Ministers of State, Ms Surya Kanta Patil and Mr A. Narendra, and the Director-General of CAPART, Mr L. V. Saptharishi, at the launch of `Business Rural India' magazine in the Capital on Thursday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Feb. 24

THE Union Minister of Rural Development, Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, on Thursday called upon the banking industry in the country to bolster rural entrepreneurship to generate income and employment for the rural people, taking advantage of the freedom provided to the nationalised banks in their operations.

The Minister was launching a monthly magazine Business Rural India (BRI), jointly produced by the Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) and the Society for Advancement of Village Economy (SAVE).

He said that when car loans and housing loans are being disbursed at relatively easier terms, the banks could, using the operational freedom conferred upon them recently, eye rural entrepreneurs to help them build up permanent assets and employment. This would help them get purchasing power to spend on the goods and services of the rest of the economy. He asked public sector banks to assist rural enterprises in their market-related activities by providing soft loans.

MNCs should first assist in income-generation and employment promotion activities in rural India by helping rural products get popularised before they resolve to focus their products into the vast rural markets of India, the Minister said. This way, he said, the MNCs should help increase the rural purchasing power through promoting rural entrepreneurs and their products

In their remarks, the Ministers of State for Rural Development, Mr A. Narendra and Ms Suryakanta Patil, laid emphasis on the untapped potentialof the rural markets and the need for the financial institutions in the country to assist the rural enterprise. They said the launch of a magazine exclusively for the rural business was timely.

The Rural Development Secretary, Mr M. Shankar, lauded the effort as having the potential to be a path-breaker. He said that through this move, the rural financial and production scenario and its potential and challenges would be highlighted to benefit the rural regions.

The Director General of CAPART, Mr L. V. Saptharishi, said that with big corporates entering rural areas with both fast-moving consumer goods and other products, rural producers generally would lose out because of the lack of economies of scale, technology and entrepreneurial abilities.

Hence, he said, the new journal would focus on and strengthen the huge potential of rural producers and provide them with avenues to reap benefits from corporatisation of rural business and expand their own markets.

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