Nabard stresses on professional managements for state co-op banks

Post bifurcation, the present AP Cooperative Bank (Apcob) is to be split into two

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala has asked the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to bring in professional managements for the respective state co-operative banks that will come into existence from April 2. The present AP Cooperative Bank (Apcob) is to be split into two post bifurcation.

“They need professional managements. Only professional managements can implement the business process re-engineering required to sustain in the current environment. Both the banks should adopt more technologies,” Bhanwala said here today.

Yesterday Nabard chairman met the chief ministers of both the states to review the ongoing projects besides discussing the new financial assistance.

While the Telangana government has asked for Rs 1,000 crore funds mostly for the development of small irrigation tanks in the state, the AP government has sought around Rs 1,300 crore for developing food parks and other infrastructure in rural areas in the next financial year.

The cooperative banks need to have all the facilities, such as RTGS and other online facilities besides treasury management like any regular bank, as customers can easily switch to other banks if they do not provide these services, according to Bhanwala.

“I have suggested to the governments to set up technology groups in both the banks for identifying the technology requirements. Nabard would help in setting up these groups,” he said.

On the funding proposals given by the two state governments, Bhanwala said both the states needed to increase their borrowing power to avail of the assistance they had sought under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). There are Rs 6,000 crore worth of ongoing projects funded by Nabard in both the states.

He said development of a chain of irrigation tanks in Telangana, which comprises mostly of arid regions, proposed by the government was a good investment and it also needed to be backed up by the long-term investments at farmers’ end in areas like sprinkler irrigation and polly farming.

AP wanted Nabard’s support in developing an integrated agriculture development plan and the services of the agency's consultancy arm would be utilised for this purpose, he said. Nabard will be releasing Rs 700 crore to Apcob before the end of this month towards refinancing of agriculture loans, according to him.

Among the new initiatives, Nabard today launched a craft mela in the city with the products manufactured by rural self-help groups from across several states.

According to Nabard chief general manager Jiji Mammen, the craft mela would be an annual event to be held every time in different state. Also, the the agency launched two e-commerce portals for selling the products and handicrafts made by the rural artisans.

Meanwhile, Nabard officials said they were expecting a 30 per cent rise in profits, which they call internal accruals, in the current financial year, as compared with Rs 1,860 crore last year. The bank has an asset base of around Rs 3 lakh crore.