Achievements of Financial Inclusion in Manipur

Manipur, a hill state in India's north-east, has shared in the national push for financial inclusion while facing its own distinct conditions. Several genuine achievements can be noted.

Spread of dedicated rural banking. Manipur is served by its own regional rural bank, the Manipur Rural Bank (MRB), established in 1981 as a joint undertaking of the Government of India, the Government of Manipur and a sponsor public-sector bank. It was created specifically to take banking to rural and semi-urban areas of the state and today offers savings accounts and RuPay debit cards to rural customers — an important channel for reaching villages that commercial banks find costly to serve.

Participation in the national account-opening drive. Following the launch of PMJDY in 2014, banks in Manipur — including the Manipur Rural Bank — took part in the mass opening of basic zero-balance accounts with RuPay cards, bringing many first-time customers into the formal system. This widened the base of households holding at least a basic account.

Growth of the self-help group movement. Under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, the Manipur State Rural Livelihood Mission works to organise poor rural households into self-help groups and their federations and to link them with banks for credit. As a special-category north-eastern state, Manipur's rural-livelihood programmes are supported on a favourable 90:10 central–state funding basis, and externally aided (IFAD-supported) projects have helped develop SHGs in selected districts of the state. The SHG movement has been especially valuable for rural women, giving them a route to thrift, small loans and livelihood activity.

Use of the wider inclusion toolkit. The instruments described in the previous section — business correspondents, cooperative and rural banks, direct benefit transfers and digital/RuPay payments — have been extended into the state to reach areas without a full branch. …