Match List-I with List-II:

List-I (Schemes/Events)	List-II (Year)
(A) Lead Bank Scheme	(I) 1954
(B) All India Rural Credit Survey Committee	(II) 1975
(C) Regional Rural Banks	(III) 1989
(D) Service Area Approach	(IV) 1969

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Correct option is A

The correct answer is (A) (A) - (IV), (B) - (I), (C) - (II), (D) - (III)

Explanation:
• Lead Bank Scheme (1969): Introduced by the RBI based on the recommendations of the Gadgil Study Group and Nariman Committee. It assigned specific districts to banks to act as leaders in local development.
• All India Rural Credit Survey Committee (1954): Also known as the Gorwala Committee, it recommended the nationalization of the Imperial Bank of India to form the State Bank of India.
• Regional Rural Banks (1975): Established on October 2, 1975, following the recommendations of the Narasimham Committee to provide credit to small farmers and rural artisans.
• Service Area Approach (1989): Introduced by the RBI as a modified version of the Lead Bank Scheme to improve the quality of rural lending.

Information Booster:
• The Lead Bank Scheme aimed to bridge the gap in credit and banking facilities in rural areas.
• RRBs are jointly owned by the Central Government (50%), the State Government (15%), and the Sponsor Bank (35%).
• The Service Area Approach assigned a cluster of 15-25 villages to a specific bank branch.

Additional Knowledge:
• 1969 (Option IV) was also the year when 14 major commercial banks were nationalized in India.
• 1954 (Option I) is significant for the official submission of the Gorwala Committee report which paved the way for social control over banks.
• 1989 (Option III) saw the refining of the Lead Bank Scheme into the Service Area Approach (SAA).