Total agricultural credit of the country was likely to cross the mark of Rs 2,80,000 crore, from Rs 2,40,000 crore a year ago, by the end of the fiscal, said union home minister, P Chidambaram, while inaugurating 11,111th branch of State Bank of India in Sonapur village in Guwahati here. If this happens then it would definitely be a great boost to agriculture credit which was merely at Rs 64,000 crore when the UPA government took over the charge at the Centre. Similarly the total education loan was likely to cross the mark of Rs 24,000 crore by fiscal end, said Chidambaram.
Praising the State Bank of India?s performance, Chidambaram said that its total business was currently at 11,14,000 crore and its deposits and advances stood at Rs 6,56,000 crore and Rs 4,58,000 crore respectively. Credit was the lifeline of a country?s economy and I am
sure the SBI will continue to lend in a big way, hoped he. Talking about farm loan waiver, Chidambaram said that we had announced the package of Rs 66,000 crore early last year and which has helped the farmers in a big way as most of the growers of foodgrains, which touched the mark of one crore tonne recently, were in debts.
Giving the example of self help groups in the country, mostly comprised by women, Chidambaram said that as more as 30 lakh SHGs had been disbursed loans by banks in the country which was a move even bigger than the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. Even though the banks in the USA were collapsing, none of Indian bank has collapsed as they were financially quite strong, he said .