The 42nd Annual General Meeting and Awards Night of Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) was held at Muscat, Sultanate of Oman from 20-22 February 2019. Oman Development Bank (ODB) hosted the event. H.E. Sheikh Al Fadhl Al-Harthy, Secretary General of the Council of Ministers, Sultanate of Oman inaugurated it in the presence of delegates from ADFIAP member countries and ODB.

The theme for 42nd ADFIAP Annual General Meeting was “DFI’s Role in National Development” which was further sub-divided into the following sessions:

 

Session1: DFI and Entrepreneurship Development

Session2: DFI and Infrastructure Development

Session3: DFI and Technology Development

Session4: DFI and Climate Action

 

Shri Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman during the session on “DFI and Technology Development” presented a broad overview of India and interventions of NABARD in technology development of its client institutions. Dr. Bhanwala said that NABARD’s vision is to transform Rural India where 60% of the country’s population lives. Interventions, innovations and actions of NABARD are directed towards building strong & vibrant Rural India. Over the period of almost four decades, NABARD has come out with many solutions with the vision to uplift Rural India. SHG-BLP has benefited about 120 million households through 8 million SHGs. RRBs & RCBs have been brought into CBS platform to be at par with Commercial Banks. These banks have been linked to the National Payment Switch and National Payment and Settlement System. Issue of Rupay Kisan Card, support for Aadhaar Enrolment and Updation Centres (AECs), FLCs, PoS, mPoS, micro ATM, etc. are some of the initiatives he mentioned during the session. 

During the Awards Night Chairman received four awards in four different categories as indicated below:

 

(i) Category 1- Human Capital Development: Merit Award for Innovative Rural Immersion Programme for New Recruits Officers

(ii) Category 3 - SME Development: Combining three projects viz. “Creating Wealth from Waste Plastic”, “Skill Loans for Youth in LWE and Other Districts -Institutional Scale-Up” and “Use of Hydroponic Technology for Paddy Nursery”

(iii) Category 5 - Technology Development: “Activities under Financial Inclusion Fund”

(iv) Category 8 - Financial Inclusion: Combining two projects viz. “Eshakti – Digitizing SHGs” and “The SHG Bank Linkage Programme”.

 

Shri Umesh Kumar, DGM, Smt. Deepti Helgaonkar, AGM and Shri Diganta Kumar Das accompanied Chairman during the visit.