An Empirical Study on the Role of APSFC for the Cause of Balanced Resional Development in Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

As part of the industrial financing system in the country, the Andhra Pradesh State Financial Corporation has gained a premier position for the cause of high rate and quality industrial growth and balanced regional development in the state. In order to remove regional imbalances and disparities to the extent possible, the Corporation! has been laying more and more emphasis on extending assistance to industrial units in backward areas. For the development of economically backward areas of the state, the Corporation has been providing a number of incentives including concessions in interest rates, margin money, etc. The Corporation has listed 14 out of 23 districts as central backward districts for financial assistance. The assistance made by the Corporation in terms of number of units assisted, the amount sanctioned and disbursed among different zones in the state is not uniform. The average amount of assistance to the units in Telangana region has been more than 50 per cent during the performance of the Corporation. There is wide variation in distribution of assistance sanctioned and disbursed among the districts. It appears that the APSFC is not able to translate its policies and ideas into action. Therefore, it has become necessary to make an in-depth inquiry into the performance of the Corporation's role for the balanced regional development in the state. In this paper, the researcher has focused on zone-wise, region-wise, district-wise break-up of assistance and the analysis of assistance to backward and non-backward areas in the state. At the end of the analysis some viable and useful suggestions are offered to tone up the performance of the Corporation for the balanced regional development in Andhra Pradesh.