Srei Sahaj e-Village Ltd, a subsidiary of Kolkata Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd, plans to appoint around 400 banking correspondents in Orissa in 2011-12.
The banking correspondents would help extend banking services to the unbanked villages in the state through common service centres (CSCs).
In the current financial year, the company intends to appoint around 5000 banking correspondents in five states- Assam, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
“The company has made elaborate arrangements for enabling Financial Inclusion and banking services through robust technology. It has also invested huge amount of money for technology solution and procurement of hand held machines and smart cards for banking correspondent operations”, said Sanjay Panigrahi, chief executive officer of Srei Sahaj e-Village Ltd.
“Currently the services offered through the banking correspondents are account opening, cash deposit, cash withdrawal, and balance enquiry. Further, other banking facilities like small loans, fixed deposits and recurring deposits will be provided through our banking correspondents”, he added.
It may be noted that Srei Sahaj has been mandated to develop over 29000 CSCs of the total 100,000 CSCs to be set up across the country under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The company will set up the CSCs in six states- Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
The company plans to roll out 2916 CSCs in 16 districts of Odisha, out of which over 2000 CSCs are presently running.
The CSCs offers a comprehensive range of services to the customers. These services include both online as well as offline services.
Srei-Sahaj is continuously exploring avenues to enhance its range of services through tie-ups with government as well as private business houses so as to make the life of rural Indians easier.
The services offered at these e-learning, railway ticket booking through IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation), mobile recharge, DTH services, electricity bill collection, IGNOU affiliated courses, TVS motor bike registration and life insurance services from DLF Pramerica Life Insurance to name a few.
Besides, the company is training unemployed rural youth through the 'Sahaj Academy' which was set up in Kolkata in 2009.
The company has set up skill development centres at Jeypore, Nabrangpur, Kalahandi, Sonepur, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Nayagarh and Malkangiri.
