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NT Bureau
Chennai, Apr 23:
 

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram giving away Corporation Bank's ATM biometric card to a bank customer Patturoja at a function held at Madipakkam on Saturday. Also seen is Corporation Bank chairman and managing director B Sambamurthy.

        Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that banks could play a pivotal role in the country's progress and development and called upon them to concentrate more on future.

        Inaugurating the Corporation Bank's first biometric ATM card at a function held at Madipakkam on the city outskirts, he said that it is imperative for banking institutions to look beyond the traditional lines through innovation in technology.

        Referring to education loans, he said that the banks had disbursed loans to as many as 9 lakh students totalling Rs 13 crore and added that during this fiscal Corporation Bank had offered loans to 5, 500 students. He urged the banks to extend their reach to more students.

        On inflation, Chidambaram said that one cannot expect Reserve Bank of India to take some proactive steps to control inflation since it pertains to a wider perspective of demand and supply. More investment alone could address this issue. In a lighter vein he said, 'Reserve Bank of India cannot control the price of tomatoes.

        Pointing out that economic growth rate of the country shouldn't be affected in the process of controlling inflation, he said instead inflation should be swallowed like a bitter pill.

        Expressing unhappiness that he couldn't target 12 per cent GDP growth rate, he said that last year the growth rate was 9.2 per cent and there is every likelihood of achieving 10 per cent.

        Complimenting Corporation Bank for bringing all its branches across the country under Core Banking Solutions (CBS), Chidambaram urged the other public sector banks to follow suit in CBS implementation.

        Earlier, the Minister while inaugurating the State's first biometric ATM card which uses fingerprincts for authentication gave away the card to a Madipakkam branch customer Patturoja.

        At the function, the Minister also issued Smart Card to a farmer Samathanam from Nanmangalam and distributed educational loan to two students and loan to a self-help group Kalaiaruvi from Nanmangalam.

        In an yet another initiative, Corporation Bank launched its Mobile Banking wherein customer could send their queries through messages to the bank to get immediate reply. Similarly, bank will also send messages to customers indicating their bank balances.

        Tambaram MLA S R Raja and chairman and managing director of Corporation Bank B Sambamurthy were among those who spoke on the occasion.