NABARD sees Rs 2.8 lakh crore priority sector lending potential in Punjab

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is India's apex development bank, established in 1982, to promote sustainable and equitable agriculture and rural development.

A state-focused paper for the state of Punjab for 2025-26 was launched during a State Credit Seminar organized by NABARD on Friday.

Raghunath B, Chief General Manager, NABARD Punjab chaired the seminar. Varsha Vajpayee, General Manager, RBI, K S Maya Devi , General Manager, NABARD Haryana; Vinod Kumar Arya, General Manager, NABARD Punjab, R.K. Meena, Deputy General Manager, PNB, SLBC and other representatives from line departments, banks and agriculture universities participated in the seminar.

A potential of Rs 2.79 lakh crore has been estimated for lending towards priority sectors -- agriculture, MSMEs and other priority sector areas such as education, export, housing, renewable energy, among others.

Approximately 43 per cent of credit potential - Rs 1.20 lakh crore has been identified for agriculture sector.

Raghunath B., CGM, NABARD explained in detail about the process of preparation of Potential Linked Credit Plan at district level and culmination of the same as State Focus Paper (SFP) at state level.

He expressed that the vision to provide institutional financial services to the smallest actor of the economy.

Varsha Bajpayee, General Manager, RBI advocated diversification of crops for sustainable development of agriculture in Punjab. She also empahsised on the need of financial awareness and financial literacy especially among women who constitute 50 percent of population gets better income to run their households.

She also expressed the need of digitization of land records so that everybody is given access to land records.

R.K. Meena, DGM, SLBC Punjab informed the house about the banking profile of the state and also assured dovetailing of Potential identified by NABARD to Annual Credit Plan prepared by State Level Bankers' Committee. (ANI)