Kerala bank plans new initiatives on turning 70

Kerala's State Bank of Travancore (SBT) is coming out with a new green initiative and traditional sartorial code for the employees on its 70th anniversary, an official said on Thursday.

On 12 September, SBT, which has nearly 15,000 employees and is a leading bank in the state, will turn 70.

While the green initiative will try to play a role in protection the environment, the dress code is meant to contribute to the promotion of khadi and handloom industry.

Speaking to IANS, E.K. Harikumar, chief general manager and the driving force behind this initiative said on Thursday that the dress code, on an experimental basis, has already been implemented in their head office in Thiruvananthapuram.

Talking about the green initiative, he said that on one Saturday every month, the employees will have to abandon their personal or official transport and travel to office either on foot, bicycle or public transport.

"The dress code of wearing the traditional Kerala dhoti -- made of handloom or khadi every Thursday, has been in practice in their head office, for a while. I can say that 80 percent of our employees use either handloom or khadi," said Harikumar.

"Now that we have put it into practice in our head office, we wish to take this out to the nearly 900 of our branches in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Women can wear either saree or churidhar," he said.

The management has decided that no order that will be issued on this and they wish the staff to adhere to it.

The initiative is mainly to send across the message that everyone has a role to play in protecting the environment and also chip in to promote the dying traditional khadi and handloom industry in Kerala.