Prime Minister-appointed high powered committee, comprising Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar among others, held its second meeting for finding ways to promote financial inclusion.
The three-hours long meeting chaired by Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla is believed to have discussed extensive use of technology for promoting banking services in unbanked areas.
Besides RBI Deputy Governor Usha Thorat, the meeting was attended by captains of India Inc including HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, Bajaj Auto Chairman Rahul Bajaj and Bharti Enterprises Sunil Bharti Mittal.
The committee was appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for furthering financial inclusion, an item high on the agenda of the present government.
The proceedings of the meeting were, however, not immediately known.
When contacted, both Deepak Parekh and Chanda Kochhar declined to provide any details of the meeting, saying only the Finance Ministry could talk about the matter.
The first meeting, held in New Delhi on July 21, had deliberated on the use of technology for promoting financial inclusion. It was reported that at the next meeting, the committee was hoping to reach a consensus for setting up a framework.
Banks have been asked to provide appropriate banking facilities to habitations having a population in excess of 2,000 by March 2012.
Currently, only 5 per cent of around 6,00,000 habitations in the country have bank branches, and just about 40 per cent of the country's population have bank accounts.
