SBI to take banking to rural areas of MP

To help attain bankers the Herculean task of attaining 100 per cent financial inclusion, State Bank of India (SBI) will soon lead and start an 'IT-enabled financial inclusion' programme in 15 areas of Madhya Pradesh where villagers can access banking facilities through the Smart Card.

Nine commercial and private banks have been allotted various districts with two blocks each to start 'IT-enabled financial inclusion' service to offer banking facilities.

"We will be first to introduce this service," DK Jain, chief general manager of SBI's Bhopal Circle, said.

Following RBI guidelines to launch the service, State Bank of Indore, Bank of India, Narmada Malwa Gramin Bank, Central Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Centurion Bank of Punjab and Apex Bank have been allotted various districts to offer the services in rural areas where banking has not made its way in a big way.

The state government is also likely to participate in the project which will run on a pilot basis in most of the areas.

Under the programme banks will rope in some vendor that can provide the 'IT-enabled service' by issuing smart card. The service, according Jain, would be available in 15 areas of Damoh (Madhya Pradesh) and Mahasamund (Chhattisgarh) by February this year.

"We are at the final stage of launching this product in rural areas where people have no access to our branches. This product will be available to rural people through a smart card and will offer banking facility at a common service point where a person (a local person who remains available to the villagers) will render the service. The person may be anyone "" a kirana shopkeeper, a PCO owner, etc," Jain added.

The person will maintain the data through a hand-held device and mobile connectivity on a negotiable commission basis. The villagers will use their cards for operating their accounts.

Despite 4,812 branches of various commercial and private banks a larger chunk of the population "" particularly in rural areas "" is yet to have access to banks.