OREANDA-NEWS. November 9, 2011. Indian Bank's second Zonal Office in Karnataka was declared open in Hubli today (8.11.2011) by Shri T M Bhasin, Chairman & Managing Director, Indian Bank. Shri V RamaGopal and Shri Rajeev Rishi, Executive Directors, Indian Bank were also present.

The opening of Hubli ZO will help the Bank in providing services on a larger scale to the customers of the Northern and Coastal Karnataka, Shri Bhasin said. Hubli Zone has 33 branches in Karnataka and 6 branches in Union Territory of Goa and Hubli Zone covers 19 Districts in Karnataka and the entire UT of Goa. The formation of Hubli Zone will enable Indian Bank to increase its participation in the developmental and economic activities of this part of Karnataka and also in the Government sponsored schemes of Central and State Governments in a big way, he added.

Shri T M Bhasin said that the Bank's net profit in the first half of the current fiscal has increased by 12.7% and the total business has crossed Rs.2 lakh crore and thanked the customers for their valuable support in making this achievement possible.

The Bank as on date has 1927 branches including 3 foreign branches in Singapore, Colombo and Jaffna and 1219 ATMS. Of these 39 branches and 11 ATMs are in Hubli Zone.

The total business of Indian Bank in Karnataka as on 31 10 2011 stood at Rs.8033.40 crores which includes Hubli Zone business of Rs.1288.11 crores. The total advance made is Rs.3228.98 crores, of which the lending under priority sector is Rs.950.66 crores (including lending under agricultural sector of Rs.257.87 cr and to MSME sector of Rs.366.50 crores.

The Bank, across the country, has 62 MSME specialized/focus branches to provide single window services to MSME borrowers and 43 Microsate branches for specialised lending to SHGs. In Karnataka there are 83 branches, of which 4 are MSME specilaised branches and 2 are Microsate branches. Hubli zone is having four agricultural credit intensive branches.

Stating that Indian Bank is keen on being a Tech Friendly Bank to all its stakeholders including the common man, Shri Bhasin said that under the Financial Inclusion (FI) implementation programme, as on 30th September, 2011, the Bank has provided banking services to all the allotted 1511 villages with population above 2000, through various delivery models. In Karnataka, 21 villages have been covered under Financial Inclusion Plan. Of these 16 are in Hubli of which 5 villages are covered under mobile van.