In Karnataka, most economic activities are back to normalcy except schools, colleges and large-scale social gatherings, said A Manimekhalai, Executive Director of Canara Bank.

Addressing the 152nd meeting of Karnataka State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) on Monday, she said: “The agricultural sector has performed exceptionally well and remained the backbone of the economy during and after the lockdowns and, hence, deserves all support.”

Referring to relief measures undertaken for the vulnerable and affected segments, Manimekhalai said: “Now, it’s time to reconstruct and rebuild our economy at the earliest through various revival schemes of the Centre, the State government, the RBI and NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) such as the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, coverage of 10,000 FPOs (farmer producer organisations), support for post-harvest storage, and formalisation of micro food processing enterprises (FME) with the One District One Product concept.” (ODOP)

She further added that banks in the State, despite various issues, have already reached out to and delivered all relief measures. The State has been in the forefront of KCC-Dairy (1,39,000 accounts) with first rank, MUDRA sanctions (22,10,350 accounts, ₹13,497crore) with first rank, PMEGP (1,898 accounts) sanctions with fourth rank, Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme-PSBs (1,73,359 accounts with ₹5,123 crore) with fifth rank, Prime Minister Awas Yojana (61,787 accounts) with sixth rank, and it is in seventh position in case of PM Svanidhi scheme (79,013 accounts sanctioned, 43,824 accounts disbursed) in the country.

Manimekhalai said the initiative of the Karnataka government on cyber crimes and financial frauds is appreciable, and SOP has already been circulated to all banks for suggestions. All banks are requested to operationalise the same at the earliest to safeguard the interests of the public.

The Executive Director said the State as a whole has achieved 50 per cent of ACP (Annual Credit Plan) under MSME, 49.68 per cent under agriculture and 58.68 per cent under total credit for the second quarter. “There is a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 12.9 per cent in deposits and 8.74 per cent in advances as of September 2020. Y-o-y growth in priority sector advances is at 9.16 per cent and agriculture is at 9.17 per cent.”