FinMin asks PSU banks for staff details

The finance ministry has asked the public sector bank chiefs to submit details of their recruitment process to facilitate training and employment of minorities.

Acting on the Prime Minister's New 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities, which aims to give special consideration to minorities in recruitment, the banking division has written a letter to the chief executives of banks and financial institutions (FIs) asking them to give "top-most priority" to it.

The ministry has sought information on "" posts for which regular recruitment is made; expected parameters for the said posts; subjects for tests; and training modules to improve skills in the matter.

Besides the training module prescribed for improving the skills of candidates, the division has sought the names of various examination centres for onward transmission to the Ministry of Minorities Affairs.

This would help the Ministry of Minorities Affairs to have fruitful interaction with the NGOs, entrusted with such pre-test training.

"In view of the significance attached to the implementation of the Prime Minister's New 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities, it is requested that the requisite information may please be furnished on top most priority," the letter read.

This assumes importance as only recently the government had instructed banks to open more branches in the 103 minority-dominated districts and lend more money to them.

Accordingly, the Reserve Bank has included minorities under the "weaker sections" category of the priority lending list. Both government-owned and private banks are mandated to lend 10 per cent of their total loans to weaker sections.

The weaker sections under the priority sector, as defined by the RBI, include small and marginal farmers, landless labourers, tenant farmers, artisans, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, self-help groups, among others.