The opening phase of the bottom-up consultative
process designated to generate ideas and review performance of banks and their
alignment with national priorities was conducted at the Zonal level on 17th
and 18th August 2019 by Bank of India at Bengaluru Zonal Office,
involving all branches and zonal office departments within the Zone’s
jurisdiction. The Consultation &
Ideation meet was chaired by Shri P K Dash, General Manager, Head Office and attended
by the Zonal Manager, Bengaluru Zone, Shri Pramod Kumar Bathal & President
of FOBOIOA Federation Shri.B N .Madhusudhana. In a first of its kind
consultation, the branches were themselves engaged in self-assessment,
deliberated on the issues, and evolved ideas on future strategy. The meet focussed on the ways and means to
increase credit to various sectors of the economy with greater IT content to
bring about innovation and leverage big data analytics. The idea is to make
banking citizen-centric as well as more responsive to the needs and aspiration
of senior citizens, farmers, small industrialists, entrepreneurs, youth,
students and women.
Several topical themes such as: Digital payments, Corporate
Governance in PSBs, Credit for MSMEs, Retail, Agriculture, Export Credit, Establishing
Financial Grid and Enabling Bank Credit towards a $5 Tn economy were discussed
during the meet with a view to Chart out specific roadmap for PSBs.
The meet also reviewed the Bank’s contribution to various national priorities in
areas such as - Credit support for economic growth, Infrastructure / industry, Farm
sector and blue economy, Jal Shakti, MSME sector and MUDRA loans, Education
loans, Export credit, Green economy, Swachh Bharat, Financial inclusion and
women empowerment, Direct benefit transfers, Less cash/digital economy, ease of
living, leveraging local potential.
Such a comprehensive exercise facilitated conception
of a number of implementable and innovative suggestions as to how PSBs in
general, and Bank of India in particular, can play a more effective role in
nation building. These suggestions were collated and have been sent for further
discussions at the SLBC/State level, along with comparative performance
assessment of the branches under each region. After the SLBC level, final
consultations will be held at the national level to compare both intra and
inter-bank performances, and to finalise the suggestions regarding the way
ahead for implementation across PSBs.
The consultative process has resulted in a renewed
sense of involvement and purpose down to the branch level and Bank of India is
geared towards implementing the roadmap for the future, improve its
performance, and further align itself to national priorities.
