Pushpa Dhole, a 42-year-old home maker and sarpanch of Pasordi village in the backward Yavatmal district of Maharashtra, no longer has to travel 20 km to get banking services. Through the e-banking facility provided by the State Government, she can now open an account, transfer money and apply for a farm loan. The village of only 1,588 residents, which is not even marked on a district map, has come under the radar of the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector, thanks to the Maharashtra Government’s initiative of providing banking services to 21,000 gram panchayats in Maharashtra. The drive to provide e-banking facilities is being spearheaded by the Rural Development Department (RDD) of Maharashtra Government. The RDD is riding on the Sanganakiya Gramin Maharashtra (Sangram) project, which has provided computers, trained manpower and Internet connection to all the gram panchayats in the State. BoB initiative For providing e-banking facilities, RDD has tied up 27 banks and CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd, a special purpose vehicle of the Centre for the national e-governance plan. Bank of Baroda (BoB) has taken a special interest in providing such services. General Manager of BoB, Kishore Kharat, said that rural masses usually save their money and lock it up in their houses, usually by burying it in small pots. But due to e-banking facilities that money will enter the banking system. Today, BoB has about 70 lakh no-frills accounts with small deposits of ₹100-1,000. Cumulatively the bank is holding about ₹1,600 crore as deposits, he said. He added that such deposits could grow to about ₹5,000 crore in a couple of years, “If we multiply the number of banks in the country with such deposits, then a lot of money can be unlocked and brought into the system,” Kharat said. Maharashtra’s Minister for Rural Development, Jayant Patil, told Business Line that the State has 28,000 gram panchayats, out of which 5,000 already have bank branches and another 2,000, which are in remote locations, are yet to get a good Internet connection. In effect, the RDD is targeting 21,000 gram panchayats in the first phase, he said. Patil said that the staff appointed under Sangram project will act as banking correspondents and handle all the cash transactions. By end of March, 10,000 gram panchayats will get e-banking facilities and rest of the panchayats will come on the map by July, he said. Paying electricity and telephone bills, and making railway and bus reservations using the e-banking platform are also on the cards, he added. (This article was published on February 14, 2014)
Posted on: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 04:38:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015