The village voice in rural lending

 Since the nationalisation of 14 major commercial banks in 1969, the sector has made rapid strides both in terms of the number of borrowal accounts and the amount financed.

 Similarly, the number of rural offices of commercial banks increased from 1,833 as at end-June 1969 to 32,481 as at end-March 2002. In spite of rapid branch expansion, each rural bank office serves 15 to 20 villages.

 There are about six lakh villages in the country served by 32,481 rural offices of scheduled commercial banks. This indicates that about 5 per cent villages in the country have a branch of a commercial bank.

 The commercial banks