SHG need technical, marketing support: Rangarajan

Hyderabad, Nov 4: The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan today made it clear that the Self-Help Groups (SHGs) needed technical and marketing support and not further cut in the interest rate for loans offered to them.

Expressing satisfaction over the significant strides made by the SHGs in the country, Dr Rangarajan, also the Chairman of Financial Inclusion Committee, told a conclave of Indian banks here that giving more subsidies to SHGs would defeat the very purpose of making SHGs more self-reliant.

He said when he was the RBI Governor in 1992, the NABARD was reluctant to finance the microfinance institutions.

But now, the SHG-Bank linkage model had proved to be a success.

''There are now 2.23 million SHGs with 32.96 million members connected to 42,000 branches'', he added.

The SHGs should be strengthened further by providing technical assistance and marketing facilities. ''These groups have to graduate themselves from making just pickles to higher levels of economic activity'', he said.

UNI