Lucknow, India, 20 Nov 2013: The first branch of India's first all-woman bank - Bharatiya
Mahila Bank - opened in Lucknow on Tuesday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress
president Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the branch via video conferencing from Mumbai.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was also be present. The Bharatiya Mahila Bank
has been set up by the government exclusively for women and will predominantly employ
women. One of the key objectives of the bank is to focus on the banking needs of women
and promote economic empowerment through women's growth and development. The bank
has appointed an all-women board of 8 members.
Other branches that would become
operational today include Guwahati, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. The
government had also proposed opening of branches in Delhi and Indore, but inauguration
of these branches was disallowed by the Election Commission because of elections in
these states. The inauguration of these branches coincides with the birth anniversary
of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Headquartered in Delhi, the government
has targeted setting up of 25 such branches across the country by March 31, 2014. According
to reports, the bank will have 39 branches (including mobile and satellite branches)
and 127 ATMs by the end of the first year of its operations. It will reportedly have
33,299 customer accounts by the end of the first year.
In the Budget speech
of 2012-13, Mr Chidambaram had announced a sum of Rs. 1,000 crore as the seed capital
for the establishment of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank. Source: Varie