Draft RBI norms on Priority lending

As per the draft the banks can lend more under educational loans. The banks can now grant upto Rs.10 lakh to individuals for studies in India and upto Rs.20 lakh for studies abroad. The earlier limits were Rs.7.5 lakh and Rs.15 lakh respectively. Banks are required , under the current guidelines of the RBI, to direct 40% of their loans to " priority sector". Priority sector includes loans given to agriculture, small scale enterprises, micro credit, housing loans ( less than Rs.15 lakhs), besides weaker sections of society among other categories. There are sub-targets fixed under each of these categories. For instance, banks are expected to direct at least 18% of their loans to agriculture (under overall limit of 40%). In case of foreign banks, in view of their lack of rural branches, they are expected to lend only 32% of their loans to priority sector. In their case, they have been given a sub-target of 10% for export credit.