Few aspects of the working of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been so striking, in comparison with other central banks of the world, as its role in the sphere of rural credit. This responsibility, of course, has been occasioned by the predominantly agricultural base of the Indian economy and the urgent need to expand and co-ordinate the institutional credit structure for agriculture and rural development. The role of RBI in the expansion of the organised rural credit structure since independence by way of strengthening of co-operative credit structure, nationalisation of substantial portion of the banking system, starting of regional rural banks, the changing banking scenario, have all left an indelible mark of RBI’s innovativeness in financing for rural prosperity. In fact, the obligations under various provisions of the RBI Act, 1934 require a proactive role for RBI, even in the sphere of providing training facilities for the personnel involved in Banking, Agri-Rural Development, Technology up-gradation, Financial markets etc., expressly or by implication.

Accordingly, RBI continued to arrange for training of higher level personnel essentially from headquarters of State, Central and Urban Co-operative Banks to tone up effectiveness of their managerial staff.  This training was originally being provided at the Bankers Training College (BTC) at Bombay and later, to attend to the exclusive training requirements of co-operative banks, the RBI established Co-operative Bankers Training College (CBTC) at Pune on September 29, 1969. 

Over the years, the emphasis shifted from co-operative banks to the broader sphere of agricultural development banking and finance.  To focus on the widening area of the training activity, the College was renamed as College of Agricultural Banking (CAB) on February 16,1974. Through the passage of time, the mandate of the CAB has evolved to reorient it to meet the challenges of the emergent socio-economic and political realities. The CAB was an intrinsic part of the experiment to use credit to catalyse rural development. The focus was agricultural projects and indeed, the CAB was virtually synonymous with the World Bank's Project Appraisal courses in South and SE Asia as well as Africa.