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The Ministry of Rural Development announced a High-Level Meeting with Banks and State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs) on SHG-Bank Linkages and Individual Enterprise Financing, held on 3 September 2026 at Mumbai and chaired by the Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare and Rural Development.
The release puts DAY-NRLM's cumulative coverage at over 10 crore rural women in more than 93 lakh Self Help Groups, with cumulative bank credit disbursement of over Rs 13.67 lakh crore to SHGs and 3.46 crore women recorded as Lakhpati Didis.
Agenda items include doubling the individual enterprise credit portfolio, raising the average quantum disbursed per SHG, cutting loan turnaround time, saturating credit linkage in difficult regions, and strengthening the cooperative credit route through District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS).
Participants named include the Reserve Bank of India, the Department of Financial Services, public, private, regional rural and cooperative banks, NABARD, PFRDA, central ministries and the SRLMs.
Deliberations are to feed into a 'Financial Inclusion 2.0' vision covering timely and adequate SHG credit, dedicated financing for women-led enterprises and higher-order financial services in rural India.
Reduce rural poverty by mobilising poor households into self-managed Self Help Groups and their federations and linking them to sustainable livelihoods and institutional finance.
Key: Launched in June 2011 by the Ministry of Rural Development, restructuring the earlier Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY); implemented through State Rural Livelihoods Missions and supported in part by World Bank investment. Branded 'Aajeevika' at launch and later renamed Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-NRLM.
Enable SHG women to reach a sustainable annual household income of at least Rs 1 lakh.
Key: A Lakhpati Didi is an SHG member whose annual household income is Rs 1,00,000 or more, computed over at least four agricultural seasons or business cycles with an average monthly income above Rs 10,000. The Interim Budget 2024-25 raised the target from 2 crore to 3 crore women; the target was subsequently raised further to 6 crore. This release reports 3.46 crore Lakhpati Didis.
Connect informal savings groups of the rural poor to the formal banking system for savings and credit.
Key: Launched by NABARD in 1992 as a two-year pilot to link 500 SHGs, building on MYRADA's (Mysore Resettlement and Development Agency) SHG work from 1985. It is the channel through which the Rs 13.67 lakh crore cited in this release has flowed.
Place at least one woman banking Business Correspondent in every Gram Panchayat to deliver doorstep banking.
Key: SHG women are trained for a week at Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) run by the district's lead bank and must clear an online certification examination of the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF), Mumbai, as required by RBI guidelines. They handle account opening, deposits, withdrawals and balance enquiry, and were central to disbursing COVID-19 ex-gratia into women's PMJDY accounts.
Strengthen the position of women as farmers and raise their agricultural livelihoods.
Key: A sub-component of DAY-NRLM under implementation since 2011, executed through State Rural Livelihoods Missions as Project Implementation Agencies, with three focus areas: sustainable agriculture, non-timber forest produce (NTFP) and value chain development.
Bring the base tier of the cooperative credit structure onto a common digital platform.
Key: A Centrally Sponsored Project approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 29 June 2022 to computerise about 63,000 functional PACS over five years, with NABARD as implementing agency. State Cooperative Banks and DCCBs were already on Common Banking Software. The Ministry of Cooperation, carved out in July 2021, drives it.
Apex development finance institution for agriculture and rural development; launched the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme in 1992 and refinances rural lending; implementing agency for PACS computerisation
Central bank; sets Priority Sector Lending targets and the Business Correspondent framework under which BC Sakhis operate
Department of the Ministry of Finance responsible for public sector banks, insurance and pensions; the channel through which bank-side directions on SHG credit flow
Statutory regulator of the National Pension System and administrator of Atal Pension Yojana; present here because 'higher-order financial services' for SHG households includes pension coverage
State-level implementing agencies of DAY-NRLM; also the Project Implementation Agencies for MKSP
The release asks banks to strengthen SHG lending 'at the DCCB and PACS level'. Those are the lower two rungs of India's three-tier short-term cooperative credit structure: the State Cooperative Bank (StCB) at the apex, District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) at the district level, and Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) as the village-level base that lends directly to farmers and, increasingly, to SHGs. Funds move downward from StCB to DCCB to PACS. This is distinct from the long-term cooperative credit structure, which runs through State and Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks.
Simple Analogy: Think of it as a three-stage water supply: the State Cooperative Bank is the reservoir, the DCCB is the district pumping station, and the PACS is the village tap the farmer actually turns on.
SHG lending counts towards banks' priority sector obligations. Domestic commercial banks must lend 40% of Adjusted Net Bank Credit to the priority sector, with a 12% sub-target for weaker sections. The RBI's Priority Sector Lending (Targets and Classification) Directions, 2025 took effect from 1 April 2025 and were amended in January 2026.
BC Sakhis operate under RBI's Business Correspondent model and were the delivery arm for COVID-19 ex-gratia transfers into women's Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana accounts — an example of SHG institutions becoming public-service infrastructure.
Created in July 2021 by separating cooperative administration from the Ministry of Agriculture, it drives PACS computerisation and model bye-laws to make PACS multi-purpose — directly relevant to the release's push to route SHG credit through PACS.
Lakhpati Didi, MKSP and the BC Sakhi cadre are the three arms through which DAY-NRLM converts group savings into enterprise, farm and service-sector incomes for women.
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections; GS Paper 3 > Inclusive Growth
General Awareness > Financial Inclusion, Priority Sector Lending, NABARD
General Awareness > Government Schemes
Rural Development and Women's Empowerment
DAY-NRLM, SHG-bank linkage and Lakhpati Didi recur every cycle in UPSC Prelims, banking General Awareness and state PSC papers.
Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission, launched June 2011 by the Ministry of Rural Development by restructuring the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana.
An SHG member with annual household income of at least Rs 1 lakh, averaging over Rs 10,000 a month across at least four seasons or business cycles.
A woman SHG member certified by IIBF as a banking Business Correspondent, under the 'One GP One BC Sakhi' initiative.
Adjusted Net Bank Credit, the base on which RBI computes priority sector lending targets.
Primary Agricultural Credit Society, the village-level base of the three-tier short-term cooperative credit structure.