Odisha govt asks banks to raise credit-deposit ratio

Expressing concern over the low credit-deposit (CD) ratio in the current financial year, Odisha government today asked the banks to increase it to at least 85 per cent.
"The state government has urged the banks to increase the CD to the level of more than 85 per cent," Development Commissioner U N Behera said at the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC).
By September, 2015 the CD ratio in Odisha has been recorded at 70 per cent against 74 per cent during the corresponding period of 2014.
Though, the overall CD ratio in the state is above the benchmarking ratio of 60 per cent, in some districts it is found below 40 per cent. The Lead Branch Managers (LDM) of the districts having CD ratio below 40 per cent have been asked to constitute sub-committees of the DCC and take necessary steps to scale up the CD ratio.

Additional Chief Secretary Finance, R Balakrishnan emphasised on covering all villages under the banking services. The banks have been advised to scale up Banking Correspondence (BC) and Banking Van models to cover all the villages at least once in a week.
During the first half of the current financial year, 61 new branches have been opened in the state, of which 30 are in rural areas. As of now, a total number of 4,727 branches are operating in the state including 2584 rural branches.
As of 30th September, 2015 banks have covered around 39.392 villages through banking correspondent model. Each bank has been advised to engage more banking correspondents and banking vans to cover each village.