10% Growth for India with Women Empowerment???, says Usha Ananthasubramanian, CMD of Bharatiya Mahila Bank
February 11, 2014; Delhi: The first CMD of India’s first all-women bank, established and inaugurated by Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh last year, has begun its work in the right earnest. “Our mission is to adopt a wide range of measures to boost women’s entrepreneurial skills, employment opportunities, education and healthcare services,??? said Usha Ananthasubramanian, Chairperson and Managing Director of Bharatiya Mahila Bank, (BMB) at an interactive session with women entrepreneurs organized by ALL LADIES LEAGUE, . Welcoming BMB’s growth plans, Dr. Harbeen Arora, Global Chairperson, ALL LADIES LEAGUE in her address said, “We urgently need to include the other half of India in the formal banking system and facilitate them to avail innovative banking products and to get an access to various financial services. Bharatiya Mahila Bank is a great step forward and by having its branches all over the country it can serve the interests of women even in the remotest of regions.???
The all women bank also allows men to open their accounts with the bank thus allowing deposits to flow from everywhere. BMB has already nine operational branches and has planned to expand its network with 16 more bank branches in state capitals by the end of March 2014. It has introduced subsidized education loans for women and collateral free loans for women entrepreneurs up to a certain amount.
The discussion panel comprised Mathew Titus, Executive Director, Sa- Dhan and Neena Prasad, Chief Representative, Singapore Exchange. Addressing the need of banking for women, Matthew Titus said, “Looking at the World Bank Report 2009, India is among 33 countries where women are vulnerable to the effects of financial crisis. We need to take whole new approach to reach out to more and more women, thus strengthening their economic stability and ultimately ensuring their financial inclusion.??? The Q & A session was moderated by Geetika Dayal, Executive Director – TIE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), representing SIGWE (Special Interest Group for Women Entrepreneurs). The Knowledge Partner of the session was NIILM-CMS, top-ranked B-school in India and many of its women students quizzed the BMB chief on the bank’s various schemes for young start-ups and women entrepreneurs.
The session ‘How massive outreach of banking services can enable women entrepreneurship to flourish’ held on February 11, 2014 at Assocham House , New Delhi was aimed at addressing the need of banking for women in India and emphasizing greater access to banking facilities among women to create a robust and inclusive society.