Promotional Activities :

During 2012-13, NABARD released `1.00 crore of grant support for conducting 10 marketing events like Exhibitions and Melas for rural artisans. Further, during the year, 334 rural entrepreneur development programmes/SDPS were supported, benefiting rural youth and involving sanctions of grant assistance of  `5.03 crore, bringing the cumulative grant assistance to  `101.35 crore, for conducting 28045 such training programmes covering  7.16 lakh rural youth.

Rural Innovations

NABARD supports rural innovations from out of its Rural Innovation Fund (RIF) since 2005 to promote innovations across the country, having the rural poor in focus. During the year, 2012-13, 90 innovative projects were sanctioned, taking the cumulative number of innovative projects sanctioned to 571. An amount of `15.27 crore has been disbursed during the year 2012-13 taking cumulative disbursements to  `58.36 crore upto 31 March 2013. NABARD instituted award for rural innovations in the year 2012 to commemorate its 30 years of association with India growth story.

Institutional Development – Regional Rural Banks (RRBs)

As on 31 March 2013, Core Banking Solution (CBS) was implemented in all 64 RRBs.  Further, recapitalisation assistance to the tune of `2015.86 crore has been released to 35 RRBs. NABARD  also coordinated with Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) for recruitment of staff and officers in RRBs and was entrusted with the responsibility for coordination and supervision of the selection process, besides finalisation of methodology.

Institutional Development – Short term and Long term Cooperatives

Training has been imparted to nearly 3.5 lakh personnel from the STCCS in business development and profitability, change management, CAS/MIS and other relevant areas. Studies have shown that these measures have lead to increase in volume of business and credit flow of CCS entities besides cleansing their balance sheets, improved governance and increase in coverage of SF/MF and borrowing membership. Assistance under the Cooperative Development Fund (CDF) has been provided by way of disbursement of `21.87 crore for the year 2012-13. This assistance has been given separately for training and capacity building of officials of Cooperatives for various skill building initiatives. The cumulative disbursement under CDF was  `130.95 crore as on 31 March 2013.

Core Banking Solutions (CBS) for Cooperatives

NABARD played the role of advisor and facilitator in implementation of  Core Banking Solutions (CBS) in co-operative banks. As on 31 March 2013, a total of 7088 branches of 205 St CBs  and CCBs across 16 states and 03 UTs came into the umbrella of 'NABARD initiated project on CBS in cooperatives'.

NABCONS

NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS) is a subsidiary of NABARD, established to provide consultancy services to a wide range of clients. The Company registered an impressive and diversified performance in consultancy business during the financial year 2012-13 and earned income of `25.75 crore. It helped promote private investment and financing in commercial agricultural projects by preparation of detailed project reports, techno economic feasibility reports and appraisal studies.