A recent press report said that the government is keen to bring down interest rate on bank loans to Self Help Groups (SHGs) and make it on par with that for crop loans.
Mr.Jairam Ramesh , Rural Development Minister told the press that said that the government was also moving towards creating a dedicated bank for women SHGs. He also witnessed signing of a credit agreement worth 4,600 crore ($1 billion approximately) with World Bank for National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP).
He added saying that the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) would be renamed “Aajiwika” and will try to include seven crore poor rural women in SHGs in the next 10 years.
He said that NRLM was the most important flagship program in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II and compared it with UPA-I’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
The NRLP, which will run under aegis of NRLM, is expected to support specific investment in 12 states that have the highest number of poor people.
Reports said that the such poor states include Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal account for about 85 percent of India’s poor.
The interest rates for other loans like home loan, car loan, business loan etc. are growing and the government’s has planned to bring down interest rate on bank loans to Self Help Groups (SHGs).