Banks’ credit share of women self-help groups up in north, east

microfinance institutes (MFIs) are slowly returning in South India while losing space to banks in other parts of the country.”

West Bengal and Bihar bag the maximum loans in the upper half of India. Bihar registered 600% growth since 2012-13 while Bengal saw a 660% rise in the same period.

The total credit in these two states stood at Rs 4,700 crore in 2016-17.

“The quantum of loans is increasing every year, and since 2013-14, the share of five South Indian states has been slowly but steadily declining to the advantage of the rest of India,” said Union rural development secretary Amarjeet Sinha. “The rest of India has tremendous growth potential. Andhra Pradesh — with the largest network of SHGs — alone accounted for more than 25% of total bank loans in 2016-17.”

Though economists also interpret the trend as a “good beginning”, they say the northern and eastern Indian states have miles to go before they realise the full potential of micro-finance. “There are two forces at work. The southern states’ growth has slowed down, while other parts of India are now eager to grab the opportunity. This is also a result of the government’s policy of interest subvention,” said Abhirup Sarkar, professor of economics with the Indian Statistical Institute.

Government sources attribute the sudden fall of southern states in credit share during 2016-17 to the Centre’s renewed focus on 10 states — which accounted for 82% poor households in the Socio-Economic Caste Census-2011.

This list includes Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

The increasing dependency on bank loans also coincides with the enactment of a microfinance law in Andhra Pradesh to stop the alleged harassment of borrowers through coercive loan-recovery practices.

The law imposed many restrictions on MFIs, and eventually, the asset base of the microfinance industry shrank.

A similar bill to control MFIs has also been under Parliament’s consideration since the UPA era. The proposed bill caps interest rates and profit margins, among other things, and gives regulatory powers to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Another factor is the NRLM, which was initiated in 2011 to take over from the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana.

“Both the schemes ran parallel in the transition period of the first two years. The NRLM fully took off from April 1, 2013,” said NRLM joint secretary Atal Dullo.

In 2015, the Narendra Modi government renamed the NRLM after BJP’s ideological icon Deen Dayal Upadhyay, providing much-needed political push to a programme that has the potential to benefit millions of poor rural households. have to be ratified by the AICC within six months.

In fact this was how Sonia Gandhi was appointed the party chief. Exercising its power, the CWC on March 14, 1998 named Sonia as the Congress president in place of Sitaram Kesri.

The AICC stamped the move on April 6 and Sonia has had a record uninterrupted run of 19 years.

“We will definitely get more public space and Rahul Gandhi’s campaign as Congress president will not only galvanise the cadre but also generate goodwill among voters,” said a Congress leader involved in the party’s campaign strategy for Gujarat.

Out of power for 22 years in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, the Congress fancies it chances this time with Rahul leading the charge.

Appointed as the Congress vice-president on January 19, 2013 in Jaipur, Rahul has said he is willing to take over from his mother but the final decision rests with the party.

As per the poll schedule drawn up by Congress poll body, the last date of filing nomination papers is December 1 and if there is a contest, the election would be held on December 8.

Since 2000 when late Jitendra Prasad unsuccessfully challenged Sonia, the Congress hasn’t seen a contest for the top post.