Mahila Bank to open 16 more branches in 4 months

Bharatiya Mahila Bank, the firstall-woman bank, plans to open 16 more branches in the nextfour months.

“We plan to add another 16 branches to our network in thenext four months,” Mahila Bank Chairperson and Managing

Director Usha Ananthasubramanian told PTI.

Two branches would be inauguarted as early as first weekof next month. These are Delhi and Indore branches, she added.New branches would be coming up in state capitals andUnion territories.

The bank intends to fulfil its obligation of meeting 25per cent of its branches in rural and unbanked areas from thenext fiscal.

[caption id=“attachment_1238675” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Launch of the Mahila Bank. Firstpost[/caption]

Earlier this month, the bank, a pioneering initiativeto empower women, was launched with a corpus of Rs 1,000 croreto function as a universal bank.Coinciding with the 96th birthday of late IndiraGandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the first ofits seven branches in the presence of UPA Chairperson SoniaGandhi on November 19 in Mumbai.

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The idea of an exclusive lender for women was mootedat the Jaipur Congress plenary last year.Mahila Bank with staff strength of 100 at the moment hasdrawn on a majority of cadre from state-run lenders. Besides,it has recruited 110 freshers in officer cadre.

In another first, the BMB has an all-woman,eight-member board.The board consists of a business graduate sarpanchfrom Rajasthan, Chhavi Rajawat, Dalit entrepreneur KalpanaSaroj, who turned around a tubes business, retired publicbanker Nupur Mitra, academic Pakiza Samad, private equityprofessional Renuka Ramnath, Godrej Group executive DirectorTania Dubash and Priya Kumar, a government nominee.

PTI