Following up on these targets between December 2024 and March 2026, 131 new bank branches were opened, 126 new ATMs were installed, and out of 9,479 villages identified to be linked with banking and postal services, 6,905 villages have already been connected. To ensure more people benefit effectively from banking services, the existing guideline requiring a minimum population of 3,000 to establish a brick-and-mortar branch has been lowered to a population threshold of 2,000 specifically for the Northeast states.
Scindia attended accompanied by Lalduhoma, Chief Minister of Mizoram attended the evey.
Scindia highlighted that the Northeast states possess a large working-age youth population, high literacy rates, and abundant natural resources. He shared that this marks his 35th visit to the Northeastern states during his tenure of 2 years and 8 months as the DoNER Minister. He emphasized the crucial importance of collaboration between banks and the government for the development of the region.
Scindia noted that 90.2% of non-branch transactions in the Northeastern states are conducted through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Scindia stressed the need to accelerate efforts to quickly connect the remaining 2,574 villages that lack bank or postal service links.
The DoNER Minister mentioned that extensive research and planning were conducted with NEDFi and the Department of Financial Services to organize the NE Bankers’ Conclave 3.0.
He added that the DoNER Secretary held individual consultations with representatives of each state to set specific targets. Targets have been set to increase the Credit-Deposit (CD) Ratio of banks: from 47% to 60% for Tripura, 60% for Arunachal Pradesh, and 67% for Mizoram. He explained that raising the CD Ratio increases the circulation of money within the state, making it a vital tool for development, and remarked that the acronym CD Ratio could even stand for ‘Credit for Development’.Scindia lauded Mizoram as a state successfully implementing digital payments, as well as the PMJJBY and PMSBY schemes. At the same time, he stressed the importance of boosting efforts for registration under the PM Jan Dhan Yojana and PM Vishwakarma, noting that banking operations must place greater emphasis on expanding credit and lending.
The DoNER Minister stated that the deliberations at today’s NE Bankers’ Conclave 3.0 were divided into four session themes: Last Mile, Loans, Livelihoods, and Lifelines. These encompass connecting unbanked villages to banks, Business Correspondents, or the India Post Payments Bank; intensifying loan disbursements to MSMEs and women entrepreneurs; undertaking initiatives to ensure…
Read More: Jyotiraditya Scindia outlines banking expansion plans for Northeast India
