Banks have to lend a minimum of 40% to the priority sector, which includes all of the given sectors.

Priority Sector Lending is an important role given by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the banks for providing a specified portion of the bank lending to a few specific sectors, like:

• Agriculture and allied activities,
• Micro and small enterprises,
• Poor people for housing,
• Students for education, and
• Other low-income groups and weaker sections.

This is essentially meant for all-round development of the economy as opposed to focusing only on the financial sector.