Introduction:

National Institute for Rural Banking (NIRB) Bangalore has, over the past 25 years years, emerged as one of the leading Training and Management Development Institutions in the country for the Rural Banking Sector, offering a variety of training programmes to the personnel of Rural Financing Institutions in general and particularly to the Co-operative Credit Institutions and RRBs

NIRB is an accredited member of Centre for Professional Excellence (C-PEC) established by Bankers' Institute of Rural Banking (Set up by NABARD), Lucknow, in technical collaboration with giZ of Germany.

NIRB is an accredited Institute of The Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF), Mumbai to conduct (i) '100 hours' Certification programme for the Debt Recovery Agents (ii) Certificate Programme for Business Correspondents and Business Facilitators (iii) Advanced Diploma in Cooperative Banking (iv) Coaching programme for banking personnel appearing for JAIIB and CAIIB examinations. NIRB had some collaborative Training studies with a few foreign countries.





The Genesis:

NIRB, had its origin in the National Centre for Management Development in Agriculture and Rural Development Banking (NCMDARDB), which was promoted by the National Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks' Federation (NCARDBF) in 1990 and registered as a Public Trust. The initiative for this venture of national importance was taken by two visionaries in the field of cooperative movement viz., Sarvashri B.S.Vishwanathan and P.V.Prabhu, the then Chairman and the Executive Director respectively, of NCARDBF, Mumbai. Though an initial contribution of Rs.10 lakh was made by NCARDBF, major funding support for the initial six years came from the Rabobank Foundation of Rabobank, the Netherlands. Rabobank is a leading Cooperative Bank in the world founded on Raiffeisen principles and ideals. Since 1996-97 NIRB has been functioning on self-supporting basis.

The Renaming:

In the year 2004, nomenclature of NCMDARDB was changed to National Institute for Rural Banking (NIRB) with a view to bringing about the required focus on the thrust areas of the training imparted by it and incidentally to make it more meaningful.