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Vinson Kurian

Thiruvananthapuram , May 2

THE apex Kerala State Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank (KSCARDB), its 14 regional offices and 44 banks at the primary level are being inter-connected and fully networked on the Oracle platform.

The Rs 7.36-crore system is expected to go live from June 1, 2006 as per the tentative rollout plan.

According to sources, the choice of the technology platform has been made with a view to allowing seamless integration of any new business venture that the bank might want to foray into in the future. The need for processing huge quantities of data, ensuring data security and recoverability has also been factored in.

The pilot phase was initiated with the installation of the Common Application Software at the head office and subsequently at each regional office and primary co-operative agriculture and rural development banks (PCARDBs).

The system was developed and is being administered by CMS Ltd.

A training lab has been attached to the Staff Training Centre at Kochi, which explains the nuances of the computerised regime to all users at the apex and primary bank levels.

Initially, the apex bank is providing PCARDBs interest-free loan for buying hardware, free common application software and facility management service for its replication. The PCARDBs shall buy hardware as per the configuration fixed by the apex bank.

The loan needs to be repaid in five annual instalments. Loan assistance is being made available for upgradation of hardware as well.

Explaining the logic behind the computerisation drive, Mr K. Sivadasan Nair, President, and Mr George Kuriakose, Secretary, KSCARDB, said one of the major infirmities identified with co-operatives is non-availability of data. Essentially, the voluminous data has to emanate from what they described as large number of individual units operating at various levels.

The lack of timely and reliable data has badly affected the competence of policymakers in diagnosing the financial health of member banks and charting out a suitable business diversification plan for improving efficiency. Computerisation will, at one stroke, address all these issues and help with the introduction of the Management Information System that will generate accurate, meaningful and timely data from the field level to the apex level.

KSCARD Bank has hosted a Web site - www.keralandbank.org - that is equipped to entertain farmer level enquiries. It has digitised all relevant communication from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Registrar of Co-operative Societies, National Housing Bank and other institutions.

Computerised dispensation will also provide more time for financial appraisal and monitoring credit.

The quality of lending, bank's forward and backward linkages are expected to improve.

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