Rangarajan happy with maturing of SHG movement

Hyderabad, July 29 (UNI) Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan today expressed satisfaction over the Self Helf Group (SHG) movement taking off well in the country.

''AS Governor of RBI, I persuaded the hestitant NABARD to finance SHGs, promising to fully reimburse any losses'', he revealed while inaugurating a workshop on ''Financial Inclusion: Challenges and Sustainable Approach'' here.

''When I was Governor here, I and my wife personally took interest in knowing about the progress of SHGs in Andhra Pradesh'', Dr Rangarajan, Chairman of the Central Committee on Financial Inclusion, said.

Praising the SHGs for their excellant performance, he, however, expressed concern over repayment, which had been 100 per cent hitherto, coming down to 95 per cent of late.

Calling upon SHGs to form themselves into federations, he felt that they should not be burdened with too many activities by the Government.

Micro-Finance Institutions have come to stay in the financial sector, he asserted, underscoring the need for making available not only credit, but also insurance and other services to the financially excluded sections and facilitate attitudinal and institutional changes in Financial institutions to achieve the goal.

UNI SM ROY AK AT VV1643