Banking access to all villages with 2,000 people: RBI
By IANSTuesday, February 8, 2011
RAIPUR - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has planned to make banking accessible to all villages with population more than 2,000 by March 2012, bank governor D. Subbarao said Tuesday
“RBI has planned that all villages with population more than 2,000 must have access to banking such as through ATMs, business correspondents and rural mobile banking,” Subbarao told students of the Indian Institute of Management-Raipur (IIM-Raipur) while making a presentation on the working of RBI.
“It is a challenge before the RBI to maintain growth and control inflation,” he said.
He explained in detail about several functions of the RBI - from printing and distributing currency to acting as monetary authority, regulatory and supervisory body for banks.
The RBI chief also sought to correct people’s ‘wrong perception’ regarding RBI as a regulatory body for interest rates, saying RBI doesn’t regulate interest rates on borrowing and lending except for NRI deposits and savings bank accounts. He also explained how RBI acts as an ‘external sector gatekeeper’ by managing current account deficit.
