Make economic growth more equitable: CMD Corp Bank

Mangalore, July 12 (UNI) The Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the public sector Corporation Bank B Sambamurthy today stressed the need to sustain a higher rate of economic growth and making it more equitable and inclusive.

Inaugurating the silver jubilee celebration of NABARD at its regional training centre here, he said the growth process had to be made more broad-based and should envelope the agrarian economy and society. Despite the economic growth in the country, the farmers' suicides was still on high, he remarked.

The small and marginal farmers with holdings upto five acres were more vulnerable to suicides and another set of NABARD clientele - the landless labourers who leased land - constituted 19 per cent of the suicide cases, he said.

Mr Sambamurthy stressed the need of a second green revolution to raise the growth rate of agricultural GDP to around four per cent.

The failure of organised credit system led to excessive dependence on informal sources, he addd.

He strongly advocated that in order to make agriculture more commercially viable, focus should be on providing more funds, investments for enhancing supply, ensuring quality and rationalizing availability.

The former CMD of Syndicate Bank and renowned economist N K Thingalaya said that NABARD should play the role of regulator to put cap on the heavy interest rates charged mainly by the new generation banks. It should rejuvenate and encourage Grameen Banks (Rural Regional Banks), which were performing on par with many public sector banks.

NABARD should become coordinator of district credit plan. It should become the harbinger of agricultural prosperity by helping farmers, he added.

UNI