Few aspects of the working of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been so striking in comparison with other Central Banks of the world as its role in the sphere of rural credit. This responsibility has been occasioned by the predominantly agricultural base of the Indian economy and the need to expand and coordinate the institutional credit structure for agricultural and rural development. The role of RBI, in the expansion of the organized rural credit structure since independence, by way of strengthening of cooperative credit structure, introduction of Lead Bank Scheme, Priority Sector Lending, etc., have also left an indelible mark of RBI’s innovativeness in financing for rural prosperity. Therefore, to initially help cooperative banks build capacity among its staff for lending to rural and agriculture sectors, RBI established the Cooperative Bankers’ Training College (CBTC) at Pune on September 29, 1969. In 1974, the College was renamed as the College of Agricultural Banking (CAB) to bring sharper focus on capacity building in the area of agricultural lending.

Thus, while capacity building of bankers from the co-operative sector remained a core priority, training officials of all types of banks associated with agricultural and rural sectors became an added dimension of the capacity building activities of this College.

With the passage of time, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector began participating in the overall development of the country. At this stage, the College also introduced training-cum-sensitization programmes in the area of MSME financing in order to help banks to build capacity for lending to that sector which contributes significantly to India’s economic development.

The academic activities of CAB are carried out under the overall guidance of the College Advisory Committee (CAC). The CAC is headed by a Deputy Governor of RBI. Chairman of select financial institutions, CEO’s of select commercial banks, representatives of some apex level organizations and eminent academicians are the members/special invitees of CAC. The CAC meets once a year to approve the training plan and reviews other academic activities of the College.

The day-to-day functioning of CAB is managed by the Principal in the grade of Chief General Manager who is also the Member-Secretary of the CAC and is assisted by Vice-Principal in the grade of General Manager in administrative and related activities and three Channel Coordinators in the grade of Deputy General Manager/ General Manager in academic activities.

The Members of Faculty are drawn from the senior and middle management cadre of RBI through a selection process. In order to bring in cutting-edge knowledge, the College invites speakers and trainers from Central Office of RBI, NABARD, commercial banks, corporates and practitioners from the farm sector, etc.