Financial Inclusion Drive

As part of the financial inclusion drive, public sector banks will open about 300 brick-and-mortar branches in the unbanked areas of various states by December 2022. These new branches will cover all remaining unbanked villages with a population of more than 3,000, according to sources. A Maximum number of 95 branches will be opened in Rajasthan followed by 54 in Madhya Pradesh. The public sector banks will open 38 branches in Gujarat, 33 in Maharashtra, 32 in Jharkhand and 31 in Uttar Pradesh. The progress with regard to the opening of branches in the rural areas was reviewed in the recent meeting of heads of public sector banks with the Financial Services Secretary last month. Banks have been asked to open branches at allocated locations by the respective State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) by December 2022, the sources said. Bank of Baroda will open 76 branches, while State Bank of India will establish 60 branches. Financial Inclusion is a national priority of the governmen

Use of digital financial infrastructure is growing

For Sangeeta Sahoo (name changed), spreading the word on gains of banking in remote, unbanked villages in Odisha is an experience to treasure. She is among the 60 students from technical institutes across the state to have participated in this unique exercise- where students lead the campaign to deepen financial inclusion."The villagers of Matiapada in Puri district had little financial literacy to take effective decisions with all of their financial resources. We apprised the villagers about the benefits of getting linked to the banks. It was a unique experience", she recounts. Sangeeta studies business management at an institute here. Little she could realise that the scope of management education could go beyond the humdrum of case studies to a more realistic interface with people at the bottom of the pyramid.For Sangeeta, it was nothing short of an innovation in management learning. The participation in Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) programme was part of her summer internship ...