NABARD in collaboration with Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Lucknow organised Fintech workshop for Rural Cooperative Banks (RCBs) on 11-12 March 2024 at BIRD, Lucknow. The objective of the workshop is to create awareness amongst the RCBs on Fintech / Agritech applications, enable an understanding of technology needs of RCBs, and foster a collaboration among RCBs and fin techs. The programme was inaugurated by Shri Shaji K V, Chairman NABARD and graced by Shri G S Rawat, DMD, NABARD, Shri Rajesh Bansal, CEO Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, Shri Rajeev Ranjan Prasad, CGM SBI, CEOs, Shri Nirupam Mehrotra, Director BIRD, Dr M S Rao, Principal, NBSC, Shri S K Nanda, CGM IDD, Shri Manikumar S, CGM SPPID. The MDs of State Cooperative Banks and District Central Cooperative Banks and fintech / agri tech players participated at the workshop.
Shri Shaji K V, Chairman in his keynote address said that rural co-operatives will enable equitable growth due to their grass root outreach, promotion of member driven village economy and technology being a great enabler, will improve services to rural community and also bring out operational efficiency of Rural Cooperative Banks. He urged the RCBs to re-discover themselves with focus on agri-business lending, agri value-chain financing, digitalization of KCCs and indicated that business growth of RCBs must be accompanied by use of technology. As adoption of technology is a costly proposition for individual banks, he highlighted the need for shared services entity in adoption of technology and various services on an ongoing basis.
Shri G S Rawat, DMD, in his inaugural address highlighted that MoC, GoI have come up with more than 50 initiatives, which opened up many opportunities to rural cooperatives. He said that the technology can address many challenges confronting cooperatives emanating from competition from new players in the banking/ financial sector, He assured NABARD's will continue to support rural credit cooperatives in their endeavours in technology adoption.
Shri Subrat Kumar Nanda, CGM, IDD, while setting the context of the workshop, reflected the sense of urgency to embrace technology by RCBs considering constraints such as low CASA, high cost of funds, limited expansion of loan portfolio and inability to extend modern banking services. He emphasised on the need for Board approved fin tech policy by RCBs, which will pave the way for a greater association of fintechs with RCBs. Shri Manikumar S, CGM, SPPID spoke about potential for rural India’s digital transformation and outlined NABARD’s initiatives such as Shared Service Entity, CBS plus, e-KCC portal, the e-NWR Pledge Loan Gateway, Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) portal and NRLM portal.
Shri Rajesh Bansal, CEO of RBIH, presented Fintech Innovations in Agriculture and Banking Sector. He show-cased RBIH innovations viz., Digital KCC, Digital cattle finance and Public Tech Platform for Friction less Credit (PTPFC). Shri Rajeev Ranjan Prasad, CGM, Digital Technology and E-Commerce, shared SBI's experiences in collaborating with Fintechs/Agritechs by presenting a detailed account of the processes of on boarding fintechs. Shri Ankit Bhatnagar, Vice President, NABVENTURES, explained the engagement of NABVENTURES with fintech / agri tech.
During the workshop, CEOs of nine fintechs/agritechs viz., AdvaRisk, DeHaat, e-Kisan Credit, TU CIBIL, Jaikisan, Satyukt, Unnati, PayNearby, and TraceX presented their technology solutions. Deliberations revolved around fintech solutions towards digitalization of KCCs, loan origination systems, loan management systems, payment systems, collateral management services, etc. The workshop is expect to initiate deeper and wider collaboration amongst the RCBs, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub and fin-techs, under the aegis of NABARD.