Tripura Rural Market Moves Towards Prosperity

Agartala, Jun 28 : Trade and commerce have picked up following a decline in militancy and banks are gearing up to penetrate the rural market in Tripura.

It's a win-win situation for both villagers and local entrepreneurs who will get easy loans and banks too make good profits.

In Abhoy Nagar village of Tripura, a group of housewives, most of whom belong to tribal families, recently formed a self-help group in an effort to become self-reliant.

A loan of 50,000 rupees from Gramin Bank enabled them to start making sofa cushions, decorative bags and embroidery work.

The self-help group is now planning to expand its business and expects to employ more poor rural women.

"We save the Group's profit in the bank and if any of our members requires money for personal use, we provide it on credit," said Monika Barua, Founder, Shib Sakti Self-help Group

Decline in militancy has given a fillip to banking sector in Tripura.

More branches are now opening up in remote and rural areas and people are taking the benefit of easy loans to start new businesses, for higher education and for buying farming equipment.

Tripura Gramin Bank, which has over 110 branches in the state, has come as a boon for people in rural areas.

In 2009-10 fiscal the bank did business worth Rs 2850 crore and made a net profit of Rs 35.35 crores, the highest by any rural bank in the northeast.

"In my opinion, Tripura is now very peaceful. For a very long time, there have been no reports of any kind of unlawful activities in the region. There are no extortion cases and insurgency has almost ended," said D Mushahary, Chairman, Tripura Gramin Bank


"I hail from a very remote area, and we have a bank branch operating there. This is very helpful as those who cannot come to Agartala can easily open their accounts in nearby branches. They can now easily withdraw money from there," said Edison Uchoi, Student, Account Holder, Tripura Gramin Bank

Militancy cripples the economic, social and cultural growth of a region.

Tripura too was affected, but now things have changed for the better.

Other militancy-affected states can learn a lesson from Tripura and reap the peace dividend.