A special desk for youth and women entrepreneurs was inaugurated by the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Bank Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) R.K Chhibber and Financial Commissioner (Finance Department), J&K Government, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta amid a round of applause at the bank’s corporate headquarters.
The bank’s special desks have been created in line with the announcement made by J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha while unveiling the economic package of Rs 1350 crore for the union territory of J&K.
Complying with the government directions, the bank created special desks for youth and women entrepreneurs at all its zonal offices to counsel them, facilitate their commercial ventures and expedite the disposal of their credit-proposals at respective business units/offices.
Speaking on the occasion, Financial Commissioner Dr Arun Kumar Mehta said, “The revival and growth of J&K economy is one of the major challenges for the government, for which I cannot overemphasize the role of J&K Bank. All we need is to join hands and redouble our efforts to make it grow and develop, for which we all need to work harder and go beyond routine banking.”
“By owning up its problems and taking corrective measures in transparent manner, J&K Bank is today a safe bank with a provisioning above the industry average. Our government stands behind you and will continue to do so but you have to live up to its trust as well,” he added.
He further said that the revival of the union territory’s economy demands that the “bank’s advances must grow at 25-26 pc during the current financial year and for that it must focus on youth and women entrepreneurs”.
“Going beyond banking you must counsel, finance, track, hand-hold and help the aspiring entrepreneurs with backward and forward linkages,” Dr Mehta said, adding that the bank needs to promote more collateral-free loans with adequate CGTMSE cover, which are safe both for banks and its borrowers.
CMD R.K Chhibber expressed profound gratitude to Dr A.K Mehta and assured that “J&K Bank family would leave no stone unturned” to meet the growth targets needed for the revival of J&K economy.
“At J&K Bank, we believe, youth and women – two most important and under-utilized demographic segments that can help sustain the growing economies -both need to be empowered financially and integrated into the region’s work-force to achieve goals of development in comprehensive and inclusive manner. This day is of huge importance to us as an inclusive and forward-looking financial institution,” Chhibber said.
“We have put up a mechanism in place to ensure hassle-free credit facilities besides counselling and hand-holding youth and women entrepreneurs to achieve the desired objectives envisaged under the package announced by the J&K government. And, as always as an institution, we shall remain at the forefront to extend every possible support to make the government’s extremely important economic initiative a successful endeavour while coordinating with the government agencies,” he added.
The bank has nominated Nodal officers at zonal levels to man these special desks for providing credit and counselling facilities to youth and women approaching different business units. All these nodal officers shall function under the supervision of the concerned zonal heads.
Besides, at CHQ level a senior officer has been designated as the nodal officer for the bank to coordinate with all nodal officers at zonal offices to ensure hassle-free credit facilities to youth and women entrepreneurs. For the convenience of concerned, the names, mobile-numbers and email ids of all these nodal officers will be available on bank’s website and its social media pages.
Executive Presidents Sunil Gupta, Ghulam Nabi Teli, Presidents, zonal-heads, vice presidents and other officers of the bank attended the inaugural function while maintaining the social distancing norms.
All the Zonal Heads of J&K and Ladakh UTs also attended the function along with the respective nodal officers via video-conferencing.
Pertinently, Dr Mehta also interacted with all the nodal officers through video-conferencing. On the occasion, the bank’s vice-president Rakesh Koul gave a detailed presentation of different products, schemes along with their purpose and features for youth and women entrepreneurs besides highlighting the initiatives take by the bank.