HDFC Bank is partnering with ministry of electronics and IT to convert some 300,000 common service centers (CSCs) into banking correspondents for the bank. The partnership envisages the village level entrepreneurs (VLE) of the CSC working as BCs of the bank and support the government initiative to promote financial inclusion and make banking services more accessible in rural areas. The VLEs will also function as business facilitators which will enable merchants, youth, entrepreneurs, farmers and women to avail loan facility from the bank. The lbank’s MD and CEO Aditya Puri signed the agreement Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, CEO, CSC SPV of the government in the presence of Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister of electronics and IT and S.S. Ahluwalia, minister of state for electronic and IT. The bank will also convert 1000 identified villages into Digi Gaon (Digital Villages) within this financial year an exercise which will include connecting the villages with Wi-Fi, solar panels etc and providing entrepreneurship opportunities to the residents. Puri said the agreement ties in well with the bank’s ongoing social programs which straddle financial literacy, financial inclusion and skilling at the bottom of the pyramid. The bank under its commitment to enhancing women’s health and hygiene, will also support CSC SPV by funding Stree Swabhiman sanitary napkin manufacturing units and has extended support of Rs50,00,000 towards the cause.
