Women crowd Mahila Bank on day one
Posted on: 20/Nov/2013 12:01:10 PM
Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) Chennai Branch, touted by the Centre to be the first commercial bank aimed at serving women in a focused manner was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over teleconferencing from a function in Mumbai. The event attracted a number of women and women’s groups, who gathered over curiosity over the benefits they could reap from the new bank. Women self-help groups too had turned up in healthy number, standing out distinctly from the rest of the crowd in their State government-issued uniform saris. “We make food products like papads, pickles, ready-mixes and snacks. We have been able to grow for the past eight years because of support from the State government. We have just come to see if there are any benefits that this bank can give us,” said Kanimozhi, who is part of an SHG in Poonamallee.
The event also saw wide participation from officials of various banks, who met up with old acquaintances and networked professionally.
Following the inauguration of the Chennai branch by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, dignitaries presented token customer kits to women from SHGs, the minority community, students, small and medium entrepreneurs and women industrialists. They also presented sanction letters to grants loans for women-run businesses and student loans.
These were presented by Snehalata Srivastava, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, in the presence of Finance Ministry Director Alok Pandey, Indian Overseas Bank CMD M Narendra and Indian Bank CMD TM Bhasin.
