IDBI sees opportunities in development projects of Centre

IDBI Bank sees opportunities in the development projects initiated by the Modi government, especially in the railways, a top bank official said today.
IDBI Bank MD and CEO Kishor Kharat also said that he expects RBI to cut policy rate by 0.25 percentage point later this month.
"The government is coming out with a lot of development programmes. In the railways, Rs 8.5 lakh cr-worth programmes have already been announced," Kharat said.
"With all these developments taking place, government needs banking organisations. IDBI is in negotiation to provide the services," he added.
"We are the principal bankers of the Railways, so I myself went to the Railway Ministry day before yesterday and asked them why we cannot handle their entire business. We were falling short in giving presentations. Now, they are convinced that this bank also has everything," he said.

"Deduction of at least 0.25 per cent in repo rate is expected on September 29 policy review by the RBI," he said.

Kharat, who was here for an event organised by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute, also inaugurated new branches of IDBI in Prantij town of Sabarkantha district and Romasana village of Mehsana district. With this, IDBI's branch strength in Gujarat reaches 191; Kharat said it will open another 250 branches in the country by March 2016.
"We are open to taking the business outside the country. In most of the developing countries like Asian, African or GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, development financial institute facilities are not there. IDBI Bank is preparing itself to go abroad with the DFI model.

"We are making strategy documents....Once the strategy is approved we will implement it in next three to five years. With this, IDBI will double its business in next three to five years," he said.
Kharat expressed hope that the economic situation will improve once the stalled projects restart. "Once the stalled projects of around Rs 6,000 crore, mostly in power, roads and infrastructure, start moving, it will have a positive effect."
"There are many stalled projects on which the government is working right at the PMO level," he added.
Achieving a double-digit GDP growth is difficult in the current situation but the next three years will see growth rate of at least 8 per cent, he said.