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In this Issue...
EditorialBISWA organises State Level
Consultation on Social Finance Other news of BISWA
ADVISORSPitabasa Sethi
Ajoy Ku. Shroff
Pramod K Patnaik
Prasant Kumar Sahu
Dr. Jharana Mishra
Ninu Nair
The LinkChief Editor
Debabrata MalickEditor
Pramod K PatnaikDTP
Govinda Ch. Tripathy
Our Source of Inspiration
Dr. K. C. Malick
Chairman, BISWA
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY Communicate Minds
4
FORTNIGHTLYVolume-145 1st March 2011
Pub lis hed by Deb abr ata Mal ick ,Chief Editor. Th e L ink, a t B ISW A,
Dan ipa li, Bud har aja , S amb alp ur.PIN -76 80 04 Ph. No. 066 3-6 45 12 37,
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BISWA organises State Level Consultation
on Social Finance for Sustainable HumanDevelopment in Odisha
BOOK-POST
BISWA held its policy advisorymeeting and State Level Consultation
on Social Finance for Sustainable
Human Development in Odisha at
Bhubaneswar on 15th February to
discuss the vital issues of the
organization and the proposed
'BISWA Bank of Odisha'. All the
members of the policy advisory board
including Padmashree Dillip Tirkey
were present and shared their
valuable views on the matter. The
meeting began with key note address
by Mr Prafulla Kumar Dhal.
Mr Dhal stressed the need for
BISWA Bank of Odisha in the current
Micro Finance scenario in the country
and after the Malegam committee
report. He presented a view of
'BISWA's initiative in linking micro
Central Office
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finance with sanitation, health,
education, enterprise development,
social security and marketing to bring
out a working model to solve the very
purp ose of holi stic deve lopm ent
through integrated approach.
To begin with, Dr Bhagawan
Prakash said: "We are toeing with the
idea of 'BISWA' entering into banking
'BISWA's presence in BIRD Meeting& Workshop at Lucknow
Bankers Institute of RuralDevelopment (BIRD) in Lucknow
organized a two day Syllabus Committee
Meeting-cum-Consultation workshop in
February 2011 for finalizing the syllabus
for Bankers. BIRD is a training institute
constituted by NABARD. 35 participants
in all from NABARD, Nationalized
Banks, District Central Co-operative
Banks, Training Centres and NGOs tookpart in the seminar. Mr Ajoy Kumar
Shroff Manager-Training represented
'BISWA'.
Mr S V Nemlekar faculty member
(FM) BIRD was the course coordinator
who at the outset gave a brief outline of
the workshop. Mr R K Das joint director
BIRD welcomed the participants. In the
introductory speech he said that training
had become quite necessary in view of
the Mega trends taking place in the
society. He spelt out some of the Mega
Trends like the bulging population,
integration of global economy and its
effect on the common people due to thebond between the IT and the Telecom
sector. "India is no longer a global
playground but has emerged as a strong
global player with potential stake," Mr
Nemlekar said. He fu rther added that
training had become a challenge in the
present days.
Mr S K Chatterjee stressed four issues
relevant to the meeting - such as MFI
crisis and its aftermath, integratedContinued ... Pg.2
approach, JLGs taking over the SHGs
and greater coordination among training
establishments.
Mr Shroff gave a bird's eye view of
'BISWA', its Five Pillars, the integrated
approach and single window service. He
further drew the attention of all towards
the fact that the interest rate of 'BISWA'
is 19% (REDUCING) which is the
lowest one in India."The integrated approach and the
concept of BISWA's sustainable
development has helped 'BISWA' to
come out with flying colours even at this
juncture," Mr Shroff said. These were
highly appreciated by all the participants
especially the director.
The faculty members of BIRD
elaborated the proposed NEW courses
as well as the existing repeat courses.
On the second day; the concerned
FMs reviewed the discussions held of the
inaugural day. They summarized the
viewpoints of the participants in the
respective groups in presence of thedirector and the joint director of BIRD.
There was constructive suggestions
and exchange of views followed by
brainstorming discussions. Participating
in the deliberations; Mr. Ajoy Shroff
reiterated the points and opined that
NGOs should be included in some of the
Trainings designed for Banks and
Cooperatives. Accordingly, contents and
durations of the Courses were modified.
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32
Bank for the PoorIt is undoubtedly a fact that India has got a robust
banking system. When most of the banks in USA
got perished during the recession period, Banks in
India survived facing all hurdles. But it is another
fact that poor people of this vast democratic countryhave got very meager access to all these banks.
Even Cooperative Banks and Gramya Banks
established with the sole aim of financing such
people also shockingly fail in their duties. More
so, symptom of cracking down to such mindset
towards making poor people bankable is not is the
scene.
But we at 'BISWA' are now sincerely thinking
for the people who hardly get the benefits from the
nationalized or private banks. The solution that we
reach is social banking through 'BISWA Bank of
Odisha'.
Many a developmental activities are taken up
for the poor people including making them
bankable. But still it remains a far dream. If one
thinks to build a Taj Mahal, it costs nothing; but
really it costs if one builds it. In the similar line
thinking for the entire poor is never a solution to
any of their problems, but working for them, what
so ever small may it be, is what they really need
and that can only improve their standard of living
including financial status.
The sole aim of establishing 'BISWA Bank of
Odisha' is to bring up the poor people to the
mainstream and develop their Banking habits sincethey also don't do it of their own for various reasons.
Academicians and intellectuals from all over the
country and State have given their positive nod for
it. Hence, it is the common people whose support
and cooperation that we need in materialising this
novel dream. This can enable us to make Odisha
poverty and hunger free state. Our efforts will surely
be a harbinger for an unexpected result to come.
sector. Biju Patnaik saw the dream of Kalinga Bank
and 'BISWA' is going to translate this dream to reality."
He further said that the very purpose behind
nationalising the Banks in the 1970s had been totally
defeated as because 90 percent resources of these banks
are channelized to the rich people and the industrialists;
whereas only six to seven percent of the total resources
go to farmers. Such reluctant attitude of the banks
gave birth to Micro Finance (MF), he said.
But now we discovered that MF is also not free frommistakes and even political interference. So we feel
the necessity of a discussion how to include those
deprived people in banking sector. But the fact is that
Indian banks are with the rich people mostly.
Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh proved that poor
people are also bankable. Further poor women are
more bankable than the male. "We have been doing
all these through MFI since last 25 years with fair
amount of success, and our own bank will sure to take
us ahead," he said.
In his address Dr. K. C. Malick chairman 'BISWA'
gave his deliberation on- "BISWA Bank of Odisha: A
Strategy for Social Financing for the Poors in Odisha".
He explained that the sector was going through totally
a new scenario. First MF operation started in India byNABARD in 1992. After getting success in many
places, now the survival of the sector is questioned
due to structural changes. No political party is in favour
of the MFI. The interference of the politicians affects
the sector immensel y. But it is a good sign that
Malegam committee report is in favour of Micro
Finance. 'BISWA' is one of the largest institutions in
the county in MF sector. To become more successful,
lamented that this practice is
continuing as on today. Hence
'BISWA Bank of Odisha' will be a
solution for such negative mindset.
Mr A.V. Swamy former Member
State Planning Board Government of
Odisha praised this concept of
BISWA's social finance. He opined
that banks are now for specific
activiti es only. But 'BISWA bank ofOdisha' will work for social finance
with low rate of interest that is going
to open a new era in banking industry.
He cited an example of Ghaislet
Block where the 1st SHG was formed
40 years back.
Prof. M. C. Dash former Vice
Chancellor of Sambalpur University
warned that achievement in the level
of establishment is easy but
maintenance is difficult for
sustainability. Since 85% of people
of Odisha live in villages, BISWA
must translate its slogan to action for
these poor people. He appealed
participants to remain vigilant on it
so that this bank also does not fail like
other Nationalised Banks.
Mr. H. P. Mishra former Chairman
IPICOL, Mr Nageswar Patnaik
Correspondent Economics Times, Mr
Kapil Kaul Country Director Help
Age India, Prof. Benudhar Bhunya
Agri Business School Utkal
Continued from... Pg.1Editorial we are going through SHGmodel and collection is
made in group meetings
instead of houses of the
clients, he informed.
"But we feel that 19
percent (Reducing) interest
charged by us, though the
lowest in the country, is still
higher. Hence rate of
interest needs to be reduced
further," Dr Malick added.
Through our own network
in the country we can
establish 'BISWA' Bank and
provide banking at the doorstep to
the poor people at lower rate of
interest, he added. Dr Malick
further said that we have to scale
up efforts and resources to build
capabilities. He also showed the
road map of 'BISWA' to the
participants. He further narra ted
how a poor lady could be astakeholder in a Bank that
happened never before. "This is
not a banking model but a social
model," Dr. Malick clarified.
Dr Malick further informed that
the organisation has presence in
28,000 villages in Orissa and we
will try to expand it to all the
51,551 villages. He said how one
activity can generate many
enterprises. If you make toilets,
indirectly it will help in brick
making.
Prof. Radhamohan renowned
environmentalist and former RTI
Commissioner Odisha shared his
experience as a lecturer in
Baripada College and his initiative
to help a farmer in getting bank
loan for purchasing a pump set.
But the concerned Bank Manager,
then, told him to ask for Indira
Gandhi for a loan since she
nationalised the banks. He further
University, Prof S. P. Das
XIMB Bhubaneswar, Mr
Nag end ra Achar ya
consultant, Dr. S.C. Pujari
HoD Sociology Aeronautic
College Sunabeda, Mr B. C.
Padhee retd chief engineer,
Dr. B. P. Dash retd chief
engineer Mr. Biranchi
Nar aya n Mis hra ret dadditional secretary
Tourism and Mr S. N. Patra
Odisha Environment
Society narrated the dream
to promote a bank for poor people to
be highly laudable. "Lot of sportive
efforts are required to make it
successful. No charity but enabling
the poor people for banking habits
will be of immense benefit for them,"
all the speakers opined. Mr. Mishra
criticised the closed mind of the
industries in Odisha who never
encourage developing
entrepreneurship culture.
To conclude, the chairperson of the
session Mr. Vivek Patnaik said: "We
are concerned for the poor,
underprivileged, downtrodden who
have no access to financial services.
Money lending has been going for
years. But 'BISWA' now wants to
give it a new shape with pro-poor
approach." He further said that
Andhra experiment is no experiment;
rather it is a knee-jerk experience.
He further suggested that RBI
alone can take the responsibility of
bringing out details of UNCLAIMEDMONEY lying with Nationalised
Banks and divert this huge fund
towards Micro Finance sector. Not
only the session was brainstorming
but a prolific one from realistic point
of view.
Dr. Jharana Mishra chief manager
RDC, at the end, proposed the vote
of thanks to the participants.
T h e L in k T h e L i n k
Continued ... Pg.3
Continued from... Pg.2