Question : Canara Bank has recently granted access to Karnataka government’s ‘FRUITS’ portal.FRUITS stands for —
(a) Farmers’ Registration and Unified Beneficiary Information System
(b) Farmers’ Registration and Universal Beneficiary Information System
(c) Farmers’ Registration and Unified Beneficiary Integration System
(d) None of the above
Answer (a)
Related facts
- Integration of Karnataka government’s ‘FRUITS’ portal with Canara bank occured on December 2020.
This integration means Canara Bank has granted access to the portal.
Accessibility
Key facts related to the above mentioned ‘accessibility’ are as follows —
| Base | Canara Bank, convenor of the state-level bankers’ committee in Karnataka, is granted access to the FRUITS platform on a pilot basis |
| Result | Once it is found successful, all other FIs(Financial Institutions) will be brought on to the portal so that at one place, all the data pertaining to the loans of the farmers will be available |
| Data | The Farmer Registration and Unified beneficiary Information System (FRUITS) portal has not only captured the details of the land owned by the farmers but also has information on the crops grown, loans taken from the banks and financial institutions, insurance coverage and also the benefits availed from various government schemes. |
| Unified beneficiary Information System | Unified beneficiary information system will maintain through an identification number. Using this number, the Financial Institutions (FIs) and lending institutions can check the land details of the farmers as well as their borrowings and take a quick decision on lending money to the farmers depending on their requirements |
About ‘FRUITS’ portal/platform
- It is an e-Governance initiative commenced on January 2019.
Karnataka has captured all the details of 70 lakh farmers in the State under this single platform. - The ‘FRUITS’ portal is integrated into the BHOOMI package of the State for fetching and validating the land details.
- This is the first of its kind in the country wherein the land and other details of all the farmers in the State are being captured.
Agricultural credit in India
- NABARD is India’s specialised bank for Agriculture and Rural Development in India. Non-Banking Finance Companies(NBFCs) and cooperatives are active in the agriculture credit space.
- The target of agricultural credit flow for 2019-20 was set at Rs 13,50,000 crore, and an amount of Rs 9,07,843.37 crore has been disbursed till November 30, 2019.
- The regional distribution of agricultural credit in India is highly skewed.
- It is observed that credit is low in North Eastern, Hilly and Eastern States.
- Agricultural credit disbursement has been seven to fifteen percent in some southern states(Kerala,Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh).
- The share of North Eastern States has been less than one percent in total agricultural credit disbursement.
- Agriculture credit target for the year 2020-21 has been set at rupees 15 lakh crore.
By — Pankaj Pandey.