The Unassuming Economist

From a Keynote address by Mr Swaminathan J:

“Regional Director for Mumbai Regional Office, Shri Suman Ray; Regional Director for Nagpur Regional Office, Shri Sachin Shende; Chief General Manager, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Ms. Rashmi Darad; General Manager, Bank of Maharashtra and Convenor, SLBC Maharashtra, Shri R D Deshmukh; senior executives from banks, Lead District Managers (LDMs), Lead District Officers (LDOs) and my colleagues from Reserve Bank of India, present here.

Good morning, it is my proud privilege today to be addressing this Conference for Lead District Managers of Maharashtra.

Being here near Nagpur and that, too, for a Conference of the LDMs, it would be amiss of me if I am not reminded of Shri Baba Amte, whose Ashram is within a few kilometres. As you all would be aware he was one of the proponents of rural economy-driven growth. There is this one part of a quote attributed to him, which says, “A balanced economic system is one which provides sufficiency for all and superfluity for some-“

When you parse the quote, you will realise that the LDMs are facilitating the sufficiency of the rural economy. And balancing the economy by facilitating sufficiency for the rural economy rings as much true today as it must have been when it was said. When you look at the results of the Economic Survey, 2023-24, it is observed that Indian agriculture sector provides livelihood support to about 42.3 per cent of the population and has a share of 18.2 per cent in the country’s GDP at current prices.

So, with the rural economy thriving, the role of Lead Banks assumes a renewed emphasis. In fact, the aspirational goals that RBI has set for RBI@100 in a Multi-Year Time Frame, reiterates its focus on ‘Accessibility, Availability and Quality of financial services to all sections of the society’.

It is this underlying principle that had conceptualised the Lead Bank Scheme (LBS) in 1969. The Lead Bank is expected to assume a leadership role for coordinating the efforts of the credit institutions and the Government. And within this leadership role, the role of LDMs cannot be overstated.

As key pillars of the LBS framework, you hold the responsibility of extending banking services and credit to underserved regions, facilitating economic advancement, the results of which can be personally fulfilling. Having served as the Convenor of the SLBC in Telangana, I can attest to the deep satisfaction derived from the tangible impact created through LBS fora.

Over the years, the roles and responsibilities of the LDMs have evolved. But the underpinnings of these myriad objectives remain the same. Today I would like to highlight certain expectations that we have from the functioning of the LDMs. For easy recallability, I have attempted to give a different spin to the acronym – LDM – and identified three attributes viz., (L)iaison, (D)esigning and Development, and (M)onitoring and Motivating. I will now elaborate upon these.”

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