英语论文网

ontribution to the Gross State Domestic Product. The contribution of services sector in Mizoram’s economy is mostly determined by Real Estate, Ownership of dwellings and business services, Public administration and Other services (Table: 1). In fact, at present the services sector alone accounts for more than half i.e. 63.52 percent of the State Gross Domestic Product with an increasing trend.

Though majority of its working force is affianced in the primary sector of the economy, its contribution to the GSDP is declining over the years due to the fact that no sufficient plain areas are available in the state where cultivation can be practiced with scientific methods, modern tools and on permanent basis. The state is not in a position to break its status as ‘no industry state’ due to geographical isolation and other associated problems. As such the development of the service sector, which needs to focus on the idea of ‘knowledge economy’ can, precedes the overall development of the state economy. One good example of service sector is the banking industry which has gone through enormous changes in recent years. Within the banking industry Micro-Finance has come out as a major financial business capable of extracting more profit from a wider customer base.

Banking has always served as one of the most important instrument for economic development. In Mizoram public sector banks have widened the horizon of banking activities especially, during the last two decades in tune with the socio-economic needs of the state. By March 2009, there were 109 branches of financial institutions in Mizoram consisting 37 nationalized commercial banks, 61 branches of Mizoram Rural Bank and 11 branches of Mizoram Cooperative Apex Bank. Commercial banks and MRB together account for about 90 percent of the total bank coverage in the state while Cooperative banks accounts for only 10 percent (Table: 3). As far as the Banking and Financial sector is concerned, the state shows a satisfactory progress, out of the 109 branches of Banks functioning in the state, it too includes new generation bank like the Axis Bank, IDBI & HDFC Bank. Financial institutions like NABARD, SIDBI and NEDFi also have their presence in the state. The total deposits with the Banks in 2007 was 1345.12 crore rupees and the total advance is 760.24 crore rupees. The Credit Deposit ratio (CD) is 56.52 percent.

The total number of population served by each bank branch in the state is around 8,500 which is much lower as compared to the national average of 15,000 is indeed a positive sign. The locational aspects of the bank branches are skewed towards cities and urban centres. The state capital Aizawl and the second largest city Lunglei together accounts for about 57 percent (62 out of 109) of the total bank branches in the state. There are many villages which are deprived of banking services even within the radius of 80-100 kilometers. This is mainly due to the poor number of households in these areas, slow economic activities etc. which make the branch banking unviable.

MICRO FINANCE IN MIZORAM

Micro finance is a new paradigm in the world of development discourse and financial intermediation. Broadly speaking, Micro-Finance is defined as provision of thrift, credit and other financial services and products of very small amount to the poor, long excluded by mainstream banking and finance market in rural, semi-urban and urb