All villages to get banking services by 2015
| March 14th, 2010 | By: Piyush Goyal | Category: Business
SURTAPUR(CHANDAULI, UP): The Reserve Bank deputy governor KC Chakrabarty on Saturday said all the villages will have banking services by 2015.
Attending an an RBI outreach programme for distributing biometric smart cards here, Chakrabarty said it is not good that even after 40 years of bank nationalisation over 50 per cent of the population do not get banking services.
He said, “looking into the problems of the rural areas and using technological advantages available, we have decided to outreach the entire rural people at their doorsteps by 2015. For this, we have introduced ‘Branchless Banking’ via smart cards to the rural population, issued by the lead-banks of their respective areas.
He said, RBI has drawn a roadmap to provide banking outlets in all villages in the first phase, where population is above 2000, by 2012. In the second phase, all the remaining villages will be covered for doorstep banking by 2015.
The doorstep banking involves issuing smart cards and then bank representatives reaching to the villages, twice or thrice a month, with the swap machines and cash.
Chakrabarty said Union Bank of India alone has so for issued more than 2.1 million smart cards to customers through its 2,500 branchless banking units.
On the occasion Union Bank chairman MV Nair said his bank will provide smart cards to all the people of the Naugarh block of Chandauli district, on priority basis within three months.
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It is the time that our honourable CMD MVNair conducts introspection and justifies the actions of various DGMs and GMs who transferred whimsically a lot of officers to other states on the excuse of non-performance. I especially mention the case of DGM Jharkhand and the then GM of Kolkata who practically transferred all Non Orriyas to other states, some officers to Bangladesh Border i.e. to Tripura state, some to Gangtok, some others to West Bengal or UP or MP or Maharashtra. The DGM and the then GM satisfied their ego by disturbing the family life of officers who did not flatter him and who did not belong to a particular caste lobby. It is worthwhile to mention here that officers of West Bengal, Tripura, Tamilnadu ,Maharashtra are seldom transferred to remote states as those of states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and UP
Our beloved and renowned CMD should now see whether there is any improvement or further deterioration in the value of assets during last three years in those branches wherefrom some special type of officers were transferred by biased DGM (surrounded by some different type officer’s lobby) two years ago?
I do not want to enlighten the complicated matters, which may violate bank’s secrecy policy. Management has every tools in its almirah to look into each account of big and old branches and ascertain whether so called non performers had improved the health of Bank’s asset or their successor or their predecessor had/have done better for the bank which resulted in their promotion and rejection of so called non performers in the same promotion process and their posting at the most remotest and the most critical branch.
If CMD hesitates to touch his corruption ridden General Managers AGM, DGM till their retirement, other competent authorities may be ordered to peep into the matter and try to precipitate the reality and truth of banking administration.
CMD should justify his action of picking management executives from MBA college campuses at packages higher than those of employees of the same bank who have served for more than two or three decades.
I hope bank will justify the action of promoting young officers at the cost of senior, experienced and devoted officers.
CMD should tell the people of India whether there was actual cash recovery in bad accounts or manipulation in the system to hide bad accounts which portrayed better picture of some officers who got preferred promotion and posting.
Whether government deposit mobilized by an executive may turn bad assets into good asset and thus help bank in enhancing the intrinsic value of the bank?
It has to be ascertained whether so called good officers have added bad assets in the name of achievement of credit delivery target
And so on…………………..
Lastly I agree with the idea of CMD of punishing non-performers. But it has to be ascertained by the system whether the non- performance is due to lack of motivation by his boss or by virtue of his posting at a critical branch or it is lack of will of the officer to perform or lack of knowledge.
In case of lack of knowledge management impart the best training to him to convert him performer.
In case the boss is lacking motivating skill the boss may be given a lesson to improve.
In case the non-performance is due to adversities attached with the branch or due to environmental impediments in the path of performance, the officer shouldering the load of such branch should rather be awarded.
In case of non willed officer, transfer to some other place may appear justified, but not without giving him an opportunity to improve.
It is always to be kept in mind that a person is not always bad. It rather depends on the perception of his assessor who may be caste biased, region biased or there may be some hidden greed of money or gift or flattery in the mind of assessor which forces him to be biased against any officer even if he is devoted performer.
Best tool available in the almirah of Human Resource Development Department should be applied on case-to-case basis. Otherwise there is every possibility that an executive sitting at the top of affairs uses his whims even at the cost of intrinsic value of the bank.
Real success of the management lies in not only transferring an officer to remote place but in making efforts for value addition in an officer and thus in bank. It is always told for branch head to be tactful in handling junior staff in the branch. Similarly it is expected from Regional head to apply prudence and wisdom in dealing with Branch head shedding personal ego. Everyone in the bank knows how officers under work pressure and in want of enough manpower are constrained to bypass rule to achieve the target under various parameter, it may be credit delivery, opening of accounts, deposit mobilization, monitoring of advances or recovery under NPA accounts.
Despite all if management is really interested to give value to merit and merit only, same team of officers sitting at head office should judge the performance of all officers and there should be no room left for regional heads to apply their mind in whimsical manner and there should be no room for Interview in promotion processes. It is bitter truth that delegated power vested in different persons cannot be utilized by different person in similar manner ant in desired and expected manner. Under CBS system management can assess the performance of all officers sitting in office at Mumbai and in this path there will be minimum use of whims. Management can save lot of expenses incurred in conducting promotion processes and ensure better reign of justice.
I think Finance Minister, heads of banks, IBA and others who are asking for more and more banks have ignored the bitter experience banks faced when they opened numerous branches in order to implement Service Area Approach introduced in 1976 with a motto to make bank accessible in all villages having a population of 10000. Accelerated expansion of banking network took place from 76 to 96 and banks realized that many branches turned unviable and unsustainable. They converted many branches into satellite branches or shifted their location or finally closed the same. Banks are committing the same blunder by opting for unmanageable expansion of their network to increase the business. To add fuel to fire Finance Minister or RBI are advising for opening of more and more banks , local banks or PAN India banks.
What is the utility of bank in villages when they have got no money to park with? Villagers are starving and begging. There is no water, no electricity , no opportunity for getting job, no good school, no good hospital for medical care, no arrangement for proper security and no infrastructure in most of the villages , but there will a bank perhaps for delivery of various aids and subsidies to be directly delivered in the hands of villages through No Frill Accounts . Common men are crying for bread to eat and cloth to bear. Wherefrom will they bring money to bank with. They need money and not only no frill accounts for which RBI has been crying since long.
If Government feel that network of 65000 branches (including PSU banks, private banks, rural banks, cooperative banks, foreign banks) is not enough, they should convert all post offices numbering more than a lac in India into bank instead of opting for more and more local banks or pan India banks proposed by Finance Minister . Post officers are already in process of technological up gradation. When post offices in India become active on CBS platform , they will be able to start banking with comfort and they are available in all nook and corners of the country and they covers most of the villages in the country.
There is no need of opening new banks, there is rather need to consolidate the existing banks, post offices, on banking financial companies, insurance companies, share broking companies and financial institutions. There is urgent need to stop irregularities, mal practices, corruption and fraudulent activities prevalent in these institutes. . There is need to punish those companies who are swindling away money of poor people in villages by promising exorbitant interest. There is needed to make existing banks more active, efficient and honest. Numerous non banking finance companies are working in almost all towns to cheat money from common men and fly away in short span of time .RBI needs to stop such rape of common men.
In brief I can say that existing financial system is almost beyond the control of RBI and there is large scale cheating going on in the country. When media unearth any story of cheating by bank or NBCC, RBI or government of India comes into action that too for a day or two, institutes a committee to look into it and then forget. This is the painful story of RBI monitoring or that of government control.
This is why we frequently comes across incident of NBCC or cooperative bank or rural banks shutting their door or the head of such financial companies absconding from the town leaving behind thousands of investors weeping and crying