Mangalore Feb 19: The Bank of India is in the process of financing about 1,500 centres through reputed NGOs for establishing e-Grama centres in seven districts of Karnataka, said Bank of India Chairman and Managing Director M Balachanran.

Speaking to media persons here on Saturday, he said the seven districts where e-Grama centres will be established are Bidar, Haveri, Chitradurga, Gulbarga, Tumkur, Bangalore Rural and Bijapur. "In fact, the Bank has already financed for establishing 162 centres in Davangere, Mysore and Belgaum districts," he said.

Giving details about the e-Grama, he said that it is an intiative in setting up rural kiosks. "It is nothing but internet enabled access," he said and added that they will be manned by unemployed people.

"The e-Grama will help the people, especially in rural areas, to know about the bank and its services, the technology development in various agriculture and activities alike agriculture; and about various government schemes and subsidies available," he said.

"We are planning to provide a link from such centres to our base branches through internet so that the people at the village without having to go to a branch would be able to get an access through internet," he said and added that the scheme is being implemented as part of the Bank's rural development project.

"The Bank is keen to take the e-Grama projects to other states as well, but it depends on connectivity," he informed.

New products

Mr Balachandran said that the Bank has introduced a highly attractive product for tax savings, viz., Star Sunidhi tax saving deposit with maximum amount of Rs 1 lakh with a 5-year lock-in-period. Besides, the Bank has also launched a new high yielding deposit product, viz., Star Vaibhav term deposit with 9 per cent rate of interest (0.5% extra for senior citizens) and with an initial lock-in-period of 1 year, he said.

Future plans

Stating that the Bank's thrust will be on priority sector including agriculture, retail lending, SME, exports and infrastructure financing, Mr Balachandran said that four villages have been identified for integrated development. They are Malalkere (Davangere dist), Attavara (Hassan), Kukdoli and Bugate (both in Begaum).

Overseas operations

Of the Rs 1,86,000 crore business, 20 per cent comes from overseas business, Mr Balachandran informed and added that more than 30 per cent of the Bank's net profit is by overseas operations.

Stating that the Bank helps the corporates in their overseas acquisitions, he said the Bank is involved, directly or indirectly, in most of the overseas acquisitions by Indian corporates. As a further step towards Bank's overseas expansion, the Bank has acquired the majority stake in a foreign bank – Bank Swadeshi, in Indonesia. "We are in the process of acquiring 76 per cent of the stake," he said and added that it is a listed bank with forex licence with about eight outlets in Indonesia.

"Indonesia's emerging economy provides lot of opportunity for manufacturers and traders to get into that area," he said and added that people from Indonesia are getting into business and other related transaction with Singapore, Hong Kong, China, India and in Africa, where the Bak of India has its own operations.

The Bank of India is the only Indian bank, which has two outlets in China in Beijing and Shenzhen. "With this, we are able to offer a wide range of services to the Indian business community and the manufactures who have transactions to do in China," he said.

Bank Executive Director K R Kamath was present.

DHNS