Nabard has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar for creating a Nabard chair unit at the management institute under the Nabard Chair Professor scheme. The chair will encourage research in emerging areas such as climate change, rural livelihood, financial inclusion, value chain management, agriculture marketing and financial product development. Nabard has already signed similar pacts with Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Institute of Rural Management, Anand. A statement by Nabard said in the next 3-5 years, the Nabard chair unit at XIM-B, shall undertake research and action research on replication of sustainable producer organization, sustainable agriculture, social wealth creation and sustainable governance to provide greater understanding on issues of implementation and policy guidance in agriculture and holistic rural development. Amar KJR Nayak, professor of strategic management, has been selected as the chair professor who will lead the research activities and policy advice of agriculture and rural development. The bank will provide about Rs 30 lakh per year to the institute to run the unit for three years, which is extendable up to five years on the basis of the performance.
