The Congress-led UPA Government's Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal for establishing a bank dedicated exclusively to women.
To be set with an opening corpus of Rs 1,000 crore, the Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) will offer dedicated financial services to women self-help groups in particular and to women in general.
The BMB was first proposed by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his FY2013-14 Budget. The bank is expected to become operational by the month of November this year.
Namo Narain Meena, the minister of state for finance, said that the initial corpus of Rs 1,000 crore would make sure that the bank would not fail due to shortage of funds. He added that the government would seek parliament's consent for granting Rs 1,000 crore for the bank.
Speaking on the topic, Meena said, "It is proposed to solicit the approval of the Cabinet to include the allocation of Rs 1,000 crore to the women's bank in the first supplementary to be approved in the current monsoon session of Parliament."
The bank, which is expected to go a long way in providing financial assistance to women and their self-help groups, will have six branches across the country - one each in north, south, east, west, north eastern and central part of the country.
However, the first of its kind bank in the country hopes to set up as many as 778 branches and 55 lakh customer accounts over the coming seven years.
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