In view of the rising inflation and cost of agriculture, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to increase the limit of loans given to small farmers without collateral. On Friday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that now small farmers will be able to take loans up to two lakh rupees without any collateral. Currently this limit is 1.6 lakhs. From the new year, all banks will have to follow this instruction of RBI.

Loans will be available easily in villages too

Now Small Finance Banks (SFBs) will be able to give loans through UPI. The advantage of this will be that even in villages, villagers will be able to get loans easily through UPI. SFBs have more reach in villages. SFBs did not have this facility till now. According to RBI, the limit of loan without collateral for farmers from the year 2019 was Rs 1.6 lakh. Before that this limit was Rs 1 lakh.

Plan to improve the performance of agriculture sector

This decision of RBI related to the benefit of crores of farmers is also important because in order to strengthen the GDP growth rate in the current financial year, the performance of agriculture should improve in any case. In the second quarter of the current financial year, the agriculture sector grew by 3.5 percent while the growth rate of manufacturing was two percent. Rural demand depends on a good harvest and only with the increase in rural demand can GDP be expected to strengthen in the third and fourth quarters.

AI based solution to prevent digital fraud

The RBI governor said that the Reserve Bank is constantly working with other banks to prevent digital and cyber fraud. In this direction, the use of AI has been started to detect mule accounts. Das said that mule accounts are used for cyber fraud. The fraud money comes in the mule account only. Once this is identified in banks, cyber fraud can be reduced to a great extent.

Work on mule account started in two big banks

To detect mule accounts, competitions are being organised continuously for MuleHunter Solution. Reserve Bank Innovation Hub and banks are working together in this direction. The work of identifying mule accounts with the help of AI has started in two big banks.