The Karnataka Vikas Grameen (KVG) Bank will be celebrating the International Women's Day by opening an “all-woman branch” here.
The bank branch in Madhura Colony here will be an all-woman branch from Thursday.
The branch will have a manager, an officer, two clerical staff and a messenger. The Madhura Colony branch was opened in March 2010 and currently caters to over 2,000 customers and has annual business of over Rs. 10 crore.
“Several nationalised banks have already experimented with the idea of all-woman branches, and they have been functioning well,” chairman of KVG Bank C. Sambasiva Reddy told The Hindu .
Mr. Reddy clarified that there was no specific reason for choosing the Madhura Colony branch for the purpose. “We wanted to have an all-woman branch that will identify areas for financing woman entrepreneurs and cater to their requirements,” he said.
Mr. Reddy said that apart from regular banking functions, the branch would act as a centre for development for woman offering facilities such as credit-related counselling, guidance services and information about various schemes for woman.
Mr. Reddy told The Hindu that the bank had plans to have an all-woman branch in Dharwad as well.
“We have applied for a licence for a new branch at Dharwad, and after the requisite approval, the new branch will also run as an all-woman branch,” he said.
The inauguration ceremony of the all-woman branch scheduled to take place at 4 p.m. on Thursday will have Shilpa Shettar, wife of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar; Jyoti P. Joshi, wife of member of Parliament Pralhad Joshi; Professor of Food Science and Nutrition Department of Home Science, University of Dhawad, Nirmala Enagi; and Managing Director of Shanthala Powers Ltd. Sumangala K. Mysore as guests.
The bank would honour women entrepreneurs on the occasion.
