In Nalasopara, an accused flees while being escorted by a constable in a shared vehicle.

Escorts Crop Solutions (ECS), a newly launched agri service infrastructure, will receive financial support through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that the tractor manufacturer and industry leader Escorts has signed with the State Bank of India (SBI). The tie-up, which is common in the auto industry, is anticipated to encourage farm mechanization at the grassroots level. Through the ECS program, Escorts hopes to offer “end to end farm machinery” to small and marginal farmers via a customized hiring approach. The company is opening Escorts agricultural solutions centers, also known as ECS “Main Dealer” and “Extension Dealer,” at the district and talukas/village levels. These specialized recruiting facilities would also offer machine sales and maintenance. Escort has plans to help SBI find the qualified dealers, and depending on criteria, the bank would give the found dealers financial support. The bank will concurrently help the buyers purchase the equipment. This will make it possible for Escorts to cater to their target consumers in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The business will open and grow its solution centers soon all throughout the nation. The alliance with SBI aims at providing easy and absolute access to machines along with the necessary financial assistance, according to S Sridhar, CEO of Escorts Agri Machinery. “Conventionally, farm mechanization strategies are tractor centric, where as our focus is to be “crop centric” and offer complete “end to end” farm machinery solutions,” he said. For a long time, it has been a reliable partner for us in the tractor finance industry. With this partnership, Sridhar added, “we extend our relationship to reach the deeply penetrated areas of the bank.” Every year, Escorts sells over 60,000 tractors, a significant portion of which are supported by SBI bank loans.