'Banks must focus more on agri sector'

The Indian banking sector must play a more active role in extending institutional finance, especially to the agricultural sector, said K R Venugopal, former secretary to the Prime Minister's Office.

He was speaking on the occasion of State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) celebrating its 62 years of banking services here on Saturday.

"The banks have to demand from other stake holders, in particular the government, to help the farmers," Venugopal said. "The banks must take a proactive role in agricultural research and development, especially in the dryland areas, which is the need of the hour as neglecting the agricultural sector would mean neglecting India's growth," he added.

A G Kalmankar, SBH managing director, said that the bank had met all the targets for fiscal 2003-04, hoping that the trend would continue this year also. He said, "The bank has done well in terms of net profit which has crossed Rs 1,000 crore."

SBH has a network of 903 computerised branches and 104 extension counters. Kalmankar said the bank also had a good rural connectivity. He exhorted the employees to take advantage of information technology and render better services to meet customer satisfaction.