By Dominick Rodrigues/Arunkumar Rao
Mumbai, Dec 29: While most economic activities have normalized – thanks to untiring efforts of bankers and government departments, the agricultural sector has performed very well and the process of reconstructing and rebuilding the nation’s economy through various schemes was ongoing, Ms Manimekhalai, Executive Director of Canara Bank, told the 152nd meeting of State Level Banker’s Committee (SLBC) here yesterday.
The meeting held at the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru included: T M Vijay Bhaskar, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka, Smt. Vandita Sharma, Addl. Chief Secretary & Development Commissioner, GoK, Jose J Kattoor, Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India, Niraj Kumar Verma, Chief General Manager, NABARD, and other dignitaries, bankers and line department representatives.
Manimekhalai said, “Most economic activities are into normalcy except schools, colleges and large scale social gatherings. The agricultural sector, which has performed exceptionally well and remained the backbone of the economy during and after the lockdowns, deserves all support. While immediate relief to the vulnerable and affected segments was provided, now it’s time to reconstruct and rebuild our economy at the earliest thro’ various revival schemes of GOI, GoK, RBI, and NABARD like Agriculture Infrastructure fund, Coverage of 10,000 FPOs, Support for post-harvest storage, Formalization of Micro food processing Enterprises (FME) with ODOP-One District One Product concept.”
“Banks in the state, despite various issues, have already reached out to and delivered all relief measures. The state has been in the forefront in case of KCC-Dairy (139000 accounts) with 1st rank, MUDRA sanctions (2210350 accounts, Rs.13497crores) with 1st rank, PMEGP (1898 accounts) sanctions with 4th rank, Emergency Credit Line Guarantee scheme-PSBs (173359 accounts with Rs. 5123 crores) with 5th rank, Prime Minister Awas Yojana (61787 accounts) with 6th rank and it is in 7th position in case of PMSvanidhi scheme (79013 accounts sanctioned, 43824 accounts disbursed) in the country.”
Describing the initiative of GoK on Cyber Crimes & Financial Frauds as ‘appreciable’ and the SOP being already been circulated to all banks for suggestions, she said all banks have been requested to operationalize the same at the earliest to safeguard the interests of the public. The SLBC has finalized the formalities for advertising Ponzi schemes awareness advertisement on KSRTC buses, she said.
“Integration of FRUITS with banks was launched on 22.12.2020 at NABARD in two branches of Canara Bank – Nelamangala and Thavarekere branch,” she said while urging all the members to get onboarded for the benefit of all stakeholders in rural development. The state as a whole has achieved 50% of ACP under MSME, 49.68 under Agriculture and 58.68 % under total credit for the second quarter, she said, adding that there is a Y-o-Y growth of 12.9 % in deposits and 8.74% in advances as on September 2020, Y-O-Y growth in priority sector advances at 9.16 % and agriculture at 9.17%.
Canara Bank was founded by a visionary and philanthropist Ammembal Subba Rao Pai in July 1906, at Mangaluru, then a small port town in Karnataka and is today the fourth-largest public sector bank in the country after its amalgamation with Syndicate Bank in April 2020. With present 10,498 Branches and 13,023 ATMs pan India, the Bank’s century-old growth trajectory witnessed it attaining the status of a national level player in terms of geographical reach and clientele segments, besides several memorable milestones and premier position in the comity of Indian banks.
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