Question

Rural Development
There is a greater need today to make rural areas more vibrant through diversification into dairying, poultry, fisheries, vegetables and fruits and linking up the rural production centres with the urban and foreign markets to realise higher returns on the investments in the products. Moreover, infrastructure elements like credit and marketing, farmer-friendly agricultural policies and a constant appraisal and dialogue between farmers' groups and state agricultural departments are essential to realise the full potential of the sector.

Today we cannot look at the environment and rural development as two distinct subjects. There is need to invent or procure alternate sets of eco-friendly technologies that lead to sustainable development in different circumstances such as organic farming. From these, each rural community can choose whatever will suit its purpose. We need to learn from, and also try out when found relevant, practices from the available set of 'best practice' illustrations to speed up this process of 'learning by doing'. A good example of such practice is creating a group and channelling their savings through micro credit whcih functions like mini banks for the development of agriculture.

Farm Women's Groups (FWG) under Tamil Nadu Women in Agriculture (TANWA) project, are creating savings in their group by functioning like mini banks through a system called____

• A. Rural Banking.
• B. Micro Credit.
• C. Community Investment Support Fund.
• D. Regional Rural Bank's

Hint:

The passage says savings channelled through micro credit work like mini banks.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Step 1: Spot the clue words
The sentence has 'creating savings in their group' and 'mini banks'. A tiny bank run by a small group points to small loans from pooled savings.

Step 2: Find the matching line
The passage ends with: channelling their savings through micro credit which functions like mini banks. The same words appear in the question.

Step 3: Reject the others
Rural banking and Regional Rural Banks are formal bank setups, not mini banks run by a group. The Community Investment Support Fund is a fund, not a system of group savings and loans.

Step 4: Answer
Micro credit is the answer, option 2.

Step 5: Why micro credit suits farm women
Small loans of a few hundred or thousand rupees are enough for seeds, a goat or a small trade. Group members guarantee each other, so no property papers are needed. This is why the passage calls such groups mini banks.

Final Answer:
Mini banks of women's groups work through micro credit, option 2. \[ \boxed{\text{Option 2}} \]