State Bank of Patiala initiative for girl child

The State Bank of Patiala has announced special initiative for the girl child, differently-abled persons and underprivileged sections of the society.

Under the scheme, the bank will contribute ₹50 for each current account opened, ₹5 for each new savings account, 10 paise for each transaction on alternative channel, such as net banking, mobile banking, ATM and card swipe for shopping, besides ₹2 for every new user of net banking and mobile banking.

“All these contributions will be from our profit. We expect to build a corpus of ₹2-3 crore in a year to be used for needy persons,” SA Ramesh Rangan, Managing Director of the Bank told BusinessLine, adding that the corpus will be less than 1 per cent of the profit. This is the first time a bank is adopting a practice of the kind being run by some consumer goods companies, which contribute a part of their sale proceeds to a social cause. Though the bank is involved in various corporate social responsibility activities, it was felt that we must fulfil our duties in an institutional framework, Rangan said.

Since the bank’s major presence is in Punjab and Haryana, the maximum benefits from the fund will go to these two States. Rangan said that Haryana had less number of females for every 1,000 thousand males, so the corpus will help in improving not just the condition of girl child, but also the sex ratio in the State. The 97-year-old bank is one of the five associates of the State Bank of India.