RAS question
Lead bank scheme assigns which bank as lead bank for each district?
Correct answer: (C) Different banks for different districts.
Under the Lead Bank Scheme, different banks are assigned lead-bank responsibility for different districts, rather than one institution serving as the lead bank everywhere.
Explanation
The Lead Bank Scheme works on a district-wise area approach. RBI's Master Circular traces the idea to the recommendation that public sector banks should concentrate on certain districts and act there as the Lead Bank. For coordinating banking activity in a district, a particular bank is assigned the Lead Bank responsibility for that district. Therefore, the scheme is not about RBI, NABARD, or SBI being the lead bank for every district. In Rajasthan, different nationalised and commercial banks are appointed as lead banks for different districts, so the answer is the district-wise allocation of different banks.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) RBI issues and consolidates Lead Bank Scheme guidelines, but the district lead-bank responsibility is assigned to a particular bank, not only to RBI.
- (B) NABARD participates in Lead Bank Scheme forums and credit planning, but the scheme does not make NABARD the sole lead bank for every district.
- (D) SBI may be a lead bank in some places, but the scheme is based on assigning particular banks to particular districts, not SBI for all districts.
Concept
This tests the institutional design of financial inclusion and district credit planning under the Lead Bank Scheme. It recurs in RAS because Rajasthan economy questions often ask how banking coordination is organised at district level.