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Call this the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) effect.
The Finance Ministry has advised chief executives of public sector banks (PSBs) to avoid foreign trips till January 26 next year, the target date for completion of PMJDY project.
Unless very much essential, foreign travel should be avoided as the PMJDY is being implemented on a mission mode, the Department of Financial Services in the Finance Ministry has conveyed to the chief executives of PSBs.
The main idea of this finance ministry advisory is to ensure that PSB chiefs pay full attention to the PMJDY project, which is billed as the flagship programme of the Modi-led Government.
Under the PMJDY, the Modi-led Government seeks to bring banking access to 7.5 crore unbanked families in the country, leading to opening of atleast 7.5 crore basic accounts and preferably 15 crore accounts by January 26 next year.
Already, this financial inclusion has got off to a flying start with about 2.5 crore accounts opened on the launch date on August 28.
VIDEO CONFERENCING
The DFS has advised PSB chiefs to extensively use video conferencing to accomplish their tasks rather than go on foreign trips to their branches abroad.
The latest advisory from finance ministry to desist foreign trips until PMJDY targets are accomplished could affect chief executives of large PSBs with several overseas branches.
This could be a problem for those who have to manage an international bank like Bank of Baroda or a large bank like State Bank of India or a Bank of India, sources in the banking industry said.
MONITORING PROGRESS
The Financial Services Secretary G S Sandhu will Wednesday take a meeting of all chief executives of PSBs through video conferencing.
The meeting will take stock of the basic bank accounts opened by the PSBs under the financial inclusion project against the targets handed out to them for the launch date.
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