A high profile special state level bankers' committee (SLBC) meeting was convened by J&K Bank (Convener Bank) here today. at SKICC wherein Governor Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Dr. Raghuram Rajan was the Chief Guest. The theme of the meeting, presided over by the State Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu, was to explore the various ways to enhance the credit flow in J&K.

The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary, J&K Government B R Sharma, Chair-person SBI Arundhati Bhattacharya, MD/CEO PNB Usha Anantha Subramanian, MD/CEO Canara Bank Rakesh Sharma, MD/CEO HDFC Bank Aditya Puri and Commissioner/ Secretary Finance, Navin Chowdhary.

Dr Drabu expressed concern over the low CD Ratio of the PSB’s banks like SBI and PNB in Jammu region despite having strong MSME potential and presence and listened to the viewpoint of Chair-persons of both SBI and PNB.

He also enquired from the State’s Law Secretary about the status of the draft of SARFAESI Act provided to the deparment by the bank many years ago. He urged the law department to come up with a local SARFAESI Act that takes care of the bankers’ concerns.

Concluding the Special SLBC with his succinct remarks, Dr Raghuram Rajan said, “Discussions in the afternoon leading up to this meeting make the point that floods have created a real problem here. However, we need to think more in terms of creating sustainable environment for enhancing credit-flow.”

“We need to constitute a small group of people not just to come up with ideas, which we have many on the issue, but to implement these very ideas and push forward to see where we can go. We need to explore partnerships between banks, state government and the central government that facilitates growth in business, increase in credit-flow and improvement in recoveries.”

Sounding optimistic he added, “With cooperation we will move forward and avail lots of opportunities with massive investments that will come here in future.”
RBI Jammu also made a presentation on ‘A Study on how to enhance credit flow in J&K’ on the occasion.

Earlier Chairman & CEO J&K Bank Mushtaq Ahmad said, “We are here in this deliberative forum to introspect and find out ways to improve the flow of Credit for the overall economic development in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.”

While presenting the agenda of the meeting, mr mus gave briefhe also give a brief overview of the progress made in various initiatives taken in the State saying, “I am happy that with the concerted efforts taken by all the stakeholders we have succeeded to a great extent. Yet the challenge remains to realise the true potential of state economy.”

On Financial Inclusion, he stated, “After successful accomplishment of Phase I of Financial Inclusion Plan the Financial Inclusion Plan Phase-II has almost been accomplished within the prescribed timelines. Under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which was launched on 28th August 2014 across the Country, banks in J&K State have opened 16,84,432 accounts upto 31st July, 2015.”

Regarding the CD Ratio, he remarked that although the Credit Deposit Ratio of J&K State had shown  substantial increase of 9.72% during the last 3 years (from 36.51% as on 31.03.2013 to 46.23% as on 31.03.2015), yet there was lot more to be done to reach to the national bench-mark of 60%.

“As of now, the credit dispensation in the state is much below the national level due to many reasons. Coupled with topographical disadvantage of the state, the major reason is the non-availability of basic infrastructure like better road connectivity, power besides other support structures. These are huge impediments in realising the optimum potential of the state economy in sectors like horticulture, MSME’s, handicrafts and tourism”, he added.

A group comprising of major commercial bankers and senior government functionaries has been constituted to see the implementation of the study made by RBI in the State Credit Plan.

Also present on the occasion were Regional Director, RBI, D. Sethy, Dy. Secretary, DFS, MoF, GoI S R Mehar, Principal CGM RBI Sudharshan Sen, CGM RBI Madhavi Sharma, CGM NABARD Shankar A Pandey, senior functionaries of State Government, Reserve Bank of India, NABARD, SIDBI, representatives of various banks & other invitees.