Role of RRBs in Gujarat in Finacial Inclusion

Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) in India were established to spread the banking amongst rural poor based on the recommendation of various expert committees. RRBs have special role to play in spread of banking in rural and semi urban areas to include the rural mass in banking network and thereby help them the rural poor, small and marginal farmers, artisans, agricultural labors, and even small entrepreneurs. There are three RRBs working in Gujarat namely Baroda Gujarat Gramin Bank, Dena Gujarat Gramin Bank and Saurashtra Gramin Bank, covering different parts of the state. The present study makes an attempt to analyze performance of these three RRBs in role of financial inclusion. The financial inclusion is measured in terms of (1) Branch expansion in rural and semi urban areas and (2) Spread of credit, taking published data of last 8 years from 2005-06 to 2012-13. The study find that the branch expansion of RRBs in Gujarat, as a financial inclusion is not fulfill much more in rural areas while credit management is good in SGB rather than BGGB and DGGB. The analysis of performance is made with the help of trend analysis and ANOVA.