iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Supporting the efforts of Government of India in helping farmers to pursue a decent
& sustainable livelihood as well as the institutions engaged in facilitating such efforts
has been one of the major objectives NABARD is mandated to address to. Review of
various policy guidelines framed and issued by it and making suitable amendments
from time to time is an ongoing process at NABARD so that the policies/guidelines
remain relevant and useful to the users.
The author is extremely grateful to Dr Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman and Shri H
R Dave & Shri R Amalorpavanathan, Deputy Managing Directors, NABARD for their
support, guidance and encouragement during the course of the study. The author is
also thankful to Shri M V Ashok, Chief General Manager, Deptt of Economic Analysis
& Research (DEAR) Shri Subrata Gupta, CGM, DFIBT and Shri B V S Prasad, General
Manager, DEAR, NABARD for their support & guidance during conduct of the study.
The author is also thankful to the CGMs & other officers of Assam, Bihar, Karnataka,
Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh Regional Offices of NABARD for facilitating
the study team for smooth conduct of the field visits in their respective states.
The author sincerely thanks & appreciates the hard work done by all the officers
involved in collection & compilation of field data in the sample states viz., Assam (Shri
Greville N Kharlukhi, Manager, DEAR, HO & Ms. Anannya Das, Manager, Assam RO),
Bihar (Shri Gautam K Singh, AGM, DFIBT, HO along with the undersigned), Karnataka
(Shri M Gopalkrishna Bhat & Shri J M Dhananjaya, Independent Consultants and Shri
Srinivasan Ramesh, AGM-DD, Dakshina Kannada & Shri S K Bharadwajam Manager-
DD, Bellary), Maharashtra (Shri S D Nalawade, AGM, Maharashtra RO; Shri Pankaj
Kumar Tripathi, Manager, & Smt Samidha S Shinde, Asstt Manager, DFIBT, HO);
Punjab (Shri Om Pal, Manager, Haryana RO & Shri Rasheed Lekhi, Asstt Manager,
Punjab RO) and Uttar Pradesh (Smt Suparna Tandon, DGM, RMD, HO & Ms. J R Blah,
AGM, DFIBT, HO). The author extends thanks to the District Development Managers
of NABARD of all the 12 sample districts for providing input and helping the study
team during the field visits.
The author would like to make special mention and thank the help and support
received from Shri Pushpinder Singh (Head-Financial Inclusion & New Business), Shri
V Ratnakar (Associate Vice President – Cooperative Banks) and Shri Rajeev Aggarwal
(Manager – Financial Inclusion and New Business) of National Payment Corporation of
India, Mumbai who provided good amount of data/information pertaining to issuance
of RuPay Cards.
The author also take this opportunity to thank all the officers and staff of controlling
offices, branches of commercial banks, RRBs, Cooperative Banks & PACS covered in
the study for providing necessary data/ information & help in collection of field data
from the identified farmers. The author is truly indebted to all the sample farmers who
spent their precious time and provided useful information to the study team which
helped the undersigned to come out with this meaningful report.
Gyanendra Mani
Author
