Indian Bank Conferred with Skoch Financial Inclusion Award 2011

Indian Bank was conferred with the Skoch Financial Inclusion Award 2011 for Self Help Group Initiatives – Urban Financial Inclusion on 7 January 2011. The award was handed over to the Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Bank, T.M. Bhasin by Deputy Governor of RBI, Dr K. C. Chakrabarty. Indian bank received the award in recognition of the services rendered by the bank for the underprivileged and unbanked.

The bank had opened a branch in Dharavi slum in Mumbai, which is known as Asia's largest slum, in 2007. The opening of the Dharavi slum branch was part of its urban financial inclusion initiative to reach the poor, underprivileged, socially excluded individuals in the society. 30,000 migrant workers and residents of the slum had then opened their first bank account. The bank till date covered 932 slums out of the 1168. More than were part of the intiative by opening their first bank account. Indian Bank has set up 32 exclusive microfinance branches for financing SHGs and 400000 groups have been added to the initiative with a loan component of Rs 2100 crore so far.

Skoch Awards, the civilian awards distributed by Skoch Consultancy Services, are meant to honour extraordinary achievements in various fields such as governance, capacity building, empowerment, inclusive growth, citizen services delivery, technology, academics and change management.