Keonjhar is one of the thirty districts that the state of Odisha consists of. This landlocked district is bounded by districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Dhenkanal and Sundergarh and the state of Jharkhand . It is one of the backward and tribal dominated districts of Odisha. The principal tribes that inhabit this district are Santal, JuangaBhuyan,Bathudi, Bhumija, Gond, Ho, Kolha,Sabara, Saunti etc. The total tribal population of the district was 818878(as per 2011 census) which was nearly 46% of total population of the district.These tribes still adopt the slash and burn method of agriculture, which leads to very low level of productivity. Moreover, they are not trained with modern technology of agriculture. This has resulted in poor living standards & earning lower per capita income. The panacea for the up-liftment of their livelihood parameter is to supply adequate funding and train them in the methods of modern agricultural technology and promotion of MSMEs. In the above challenging situations, Keonjhar district is put under the scanner. The Santaltribe isone of the oldest tribes in the country and found in different parts of the states. In the Keonjhar district near about 28740 no of peoples, speak Santali mother tongue, which is more than 3% of their total population. Most of these tribals normally live in deep woods and high hills away from the glitter and glamour of modern society till yet. The forest supplies them with food, clothing, shelter, and medicines. Their economy is seems to be simple and characterized by food gathering, hunting, and shifting cultivation and blind beliefs. Their standards of living is very low and miserably poor in comparison to the non-tribal peoples. As Santaltribals constitute a sizeable portion of the total population and occupy a significant proportion of land area of the district, so the economic development of the districts is very much linked with their development. Therefore, the development of tribal communities and the entry of these tribals into the national mainstream has become the most challenging objectives of the State Government in recent times. Economic development of Santaltribals is concerned with the achievement of a better standard of living, better education, better health and expanded opportunities in their employment. In order to achieve this goal, the Central and State Governments& NGOs have implemented various tribal development programmes and projects from time to time. Most of the development programmes and projects are credit linked as the tribals have little owned funds to invest. This calls for initiative and energetic involvement on the part of the financial institutions particularly banks in providing opportunities for adequate investment through the mechanism of finance and credit in the district in general and in the tribal areas in particular. Traditionally, banks in India were both in theory and in practice, passive agents in the development process. Like all private economic institutions under capitalism, the banks were also motivated by profit. Consequently, credit policy of these banks followed maximum profit, minimum risk and security of advances without remote financing. In view of this lopsided, bankingsector (Commercial banks, RRBs, Co-operative banks) development, attempts have been made by the Government of India to regulate the activities and operations of banks by adopting various organizational, institutional and regulatory measures. The introduction of social control over banks, and the subsequent nationalization of major scheduled commercial banks and launching of Regional Rural Banks had the main objective of ensuring that banks do play a dynamic role in the development process of the backward areas.Banks are liberalized its access, so that it will uplift the poor tribals and underprivileged sections of the society by channelizing its flow of credit in accordance with the socio-economic objectives of the nation. Thus, the role- of banks has been changing in response to the socio-economic needs. They have been called upon to contribute to the development process by slowly switching over from traditional concept of commercial banking to development banking which is called banking for all. In the process of acceleration, financial institutions particularly commercial banks, co-operative banks& RRBs have been playing pivotal role in financing the tribal development programmes through the mechanism of credit with a view to providing expanded opportunities in employment and bringing about a rapid rise in the living standard of tribals. At present, the banks involve themselves in a co-operative manner with the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) in identifying the tribal beneficiaries and their needs. Banks also formulate viable projects, which will contribute to their success and ensure profitable investment of funds. Despite all such developmental efforts and massive credit from banks, there is a general feeling that results have fallen far short of expectations as only a nominal benefit has reached the tribals. How far the banks have succeeded in their efforts in promoting tribal development has become a vital concern to the researchers in recent times and that is why it is put into the scanner. The outcomes of various studies and research work on tribal development reveal that the development programmes have done immense harm to the tribals instead of raising them above the poverty line. In the name of modernization and development, tribals have lost their right and liberty over land and forest, which they had been enjoying from time immemorial. The introduction of money economy has left them to the tender, mercies of moneylenders leading to their chronic indebtedness. However, these broad generalizations may not be applicable to all the tribes of a vast country like India. Therefore, a study relating to access of institutional finance on the economic development of tribals at a micro level, confined to a district, seem to be most appropriate. The micro study can point out areas of success as well as failure and point out the deficiencies in the formulation of policy and in the implementation of the programme. The present study attempts to find out whether the credit access from financial institutions under various tribal development programmes has contributed to the economic development of Santal tribals of the Keonjhar district in Odisha. During the course of the study, attempts have also been made to probe into the problems of theTribals and to make certain suggestions for further achievement of the contemplated requirements.