The largest lender of the country, State Bank of India plans to achieve business worth Rs 4.75 lakh crore from the rural segment by the end of this financial year, informed a top official of the bank. "We are targeting rural deposits of Rs 3 lakh crore and rural advances of Rs 1.75 lakh crore by the end of March, 2011," SBI Deputy Managing Director (Rural Business) R Venakatachalan said. The bank currently stands with total deposits of Rs 2.89 lakh crore and advances of Rs 1.60 lakh crore from rural areas, he said. He added that rural deposits comprised of 36% of the total deposits of the bank while 32% of the total advances came from rural segment. He said that barring Andhra Pradesh, the facility of lending to microfinance institutions (MFIs) was extended to all other lenders of the country. "We are carefully watching the cash flow of the MFIs in Andhra Pradesh," he said.
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