Bhubaneswar: The 180th State Level Bankers’ Committee meeting was held on Wednesday under the co-chairmanship of Anu Garg, Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Odisha, and Ashwani Kumar, Managing Director & CEO of UCO Bank. The meeting aimed to align banking strategies with Odisha’s long-term vision documents for 2036 and 2047, emphasizing financial inclusion, regional development, and economic empowerment.
In the meeting, Garg emphasized the need for banks to improve the credit to GSDP ratio in Odisha, aligning with the state’s growth and job creation targets outlined in the vision document for 2036 and 2047. She highlighted the importance of enhancing the CD ratio in underperforming districts and advised banks to send SMS notifications to beneficiaries in the Odia language to make communication more effective and user-friendly.
Also, banks were encouraged to promote Central Know Your Customer (CKYC) to enhance transparency, reduce duplication, and improve the ease of doing business across the financial ecosystem.
The meeting emphasized the importance of flagship schemes such as Cold Storage, PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, PMSVANidhi, MKUY, and PMMY, which are expected to create more employment opportunities. Banks were urged to extend adequate credit to key sectors like education, housing, and exports to support the state’s economic growth.
Besides, partner banks, including SBI, PNB, UBI, UCO, BOI, and BOB, were directed to open CSP Plus outlets in remaining unbanked Gram Panchayats at the earliest and monitor their performance regularly.
Outlining the key focus areas for the financial growth in the state, DC-cum-ACS emphasized on ACP achievements and enhancing the Credit to GSDP ratio of the state keeping in view of Odisha Vision document, 2036 and 2047. She highlighted the need for credit flow to Housing, Education MSME, Agri and allied sectors. She urged partner banks (SBI, PNB, UBI, UCO, BOI, BOB) to open the CSP Plus outlets in remaining unbanked GPs latest by 30th September and to monitor the performance of the outlets within stipulated timeline.
MD & CEO of UCO Bank cum Chairman SLBC, Odisha Ashwani Kumar informed that the annual target under ACP for 2025-26 has been fixed at Rs.2,52,095.66 crore against which all banks have achieved Rs.61,412.76 Crore as of 30.06.2025 which is 24.36% of the target.
The Principal Secretary Finance Department, Sanjeeb Kumar Mishra advised banks to promote CKYC (Central Know Your Customer) to enhance transparency, reduce duplication, and significantly improve the ease of doing business across the financial ecosystem.
The Regional Director, RBI, Bhubaneswar Sarada Prasan Mohanty laid emphasis on prevention of cyber and digital fraud, Money Mule Accounts. He also informed that so far Odisha is the number one state in the country in doing Re-KYC during the current Financial Inclusion campaign from 01.07.2025 to 30.09.2025.
The Principal Secretary, Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, Dr Arabinda Kumar Padhee, Principal Secretary, F & ARD Department Suresh Kumar Vashishth, Principal Secretary, Commerce & Transport Department Usha Padhee, Commissioner cum Secretary, Mission Shakti Department, Shalini Pandit and Commissioner cum Secretary, MSME Department, Prasanth Kumar Reddy were also present and discussed about the credit linked schemes and their effective implementation with the banks.
Convener, SLBC, Senior officials of State and Central Government, NABARAD and Regional Controlling Heads of all banks were also present in the meeting.
