Comments
The Payment Bank proposed by the Department of Posts (DoP) will become operational from March 2017. The Centre is investing ₹800 crore, including ₹400 crore from the Department, to set up the bank. The Department is running pilots in a few States to test the model.
“We are taking it to the Cabinet (for the go-ahead). We will make the bank operational by March 2017,” Union IT, Telecom and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said.
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, he said as many as 50 global banking and financial institutions have shown interest to take part in the DoP’s payment bank, to offer third party services. The list includes the World Bank, Citi (the US), Deutsche Bank and Barclays of the UK.
“The bank will act as a big platform for offering financial inclusion services. The DoP board will take a call on the tie-ups. They will offer insurance and other financial products, using the vast DoP’s network in the country,” he said. The Minister was in the city to take part in the annual meeting of Heads of (Postal) Circles that discussed Financial Sustainability for three days beginning May 20.
BSNL turnaroundHe said the two-year-old Narendra Modi government had turned the BSNL around from losses.
“It made a profit of ₹10,000 crore at the end of Vajpayee government in 2004. But the public sector telecom ended up making losses to the tune of ₹8,000 crore after two terms of the Congress government. After we took over in 2014, it has begun to make operational profits,” he said. At the conference earlier, the Minister asked the DoP to explore additional avenues to mobile more revenues.
IT servicesThe Minister said the rhetoric on H1B visas and restrictions on IT talent abroad would not hurt the IT services industry.
“Our strong point is our talent. With regard to the issues related to visas and other restrictions, the Prime Minister has spoken to US President Obama. I too have taken up in different fora. Our IT firms operate in 200 cities in 80 countries and this shows our strengths,” he said.
He refused to comment on whether the situation would turn hostile if Donald Trump won the US Presidential election.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.