Abstract

Climate changes are a noteworthy concern because of their drastic and looming effects, owing to which economists have recognized that there are numerous financial rewards from controlling climate change and reducing the carbon footprints in the economy. Banks can play a pivotal role for this economic transformation. This will act as a catalyst for new challenging and profitable opportunities in several financing and investment policies. In this endeavour, social banks are expected to ethically perform their operations in responsibility and controlling money laundering. They need to comply with the principles of integrity, impartiality, reliability and transparency. In this backdrop, the importance of the rural banking in the economic development of a country cannot be undermined. As was rightly stated by Gandhiji, “Real India lies in villages,” and village economy is the backbone of Indian economy. Regional Rural Banks were established with the main objective to ensure sufficient institutional credit for agriculture and other rural sectors. The objective of this paper is to highlight the Green Banking initiatives being taken by the Indian Regional Rural Banks in terms of awareness, pursuance, energy efficiency, financial inclusion, Rural green practices, corporate social responsibility and sustainable development and also to highlight some significant gaps and suggestions as to how, passing of more mandates, legislations, directives and proactive role of RBI can take India to a new paradigm for making a greener tomorrow.

 Key words: Green banking, Sustainable Development, Rural India, Awareness, Corporate Social responsibility.