In Brief

RBI introduces mobile ATM at Lakshmipura village
VADODARA: RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakravarty met villagers of Padra taluka as part of the bank’s platinum jubilee year celebrations on Saturday. A swipe machine was introduced in Lakshmipura village of the taluka where villagers with a bank account and a debit card could swap money from a mobile ATM machine attached to a biometric system,which would identify the fingerprint as a password. Chakravarty said: “Only 30,000 of the six lakh villages in India are connected with banks. The Centre aims that in this platinum year,more and more villagers should have a bank account.”

New chief general manager for SBI Ahmedabad Circle
AHMEDABAD: P Nanda Kumaran will take over as the Chief General Manager of the Ahmedabad Circle of State Bank of India on Monday. An SBI release said the bank will try to reach out to the rural areas with alternative channels of banking,open more branches,and improve the bank’s market share in Gujarat.
Kumaran had joined SBI as a Probationary Officer in Ahmedabad Circle in 1975. He worked at various branches/Administrative offices in Gujarat before moving to the Treasury Department,Corporate Centre,Mumbai,in May 1997. He was later posted as senior vice-president (operations) in SBI Toronto in September 2000,and was appointed president and CEO of SBI Toronto in November 2003 where he worked for another year.
He was later posted as the Chief GM,Personal Banking Business Unit at Corporate Centre,Mumbai in charge of the Bank’s retail business.
He was the main architect in designing and successfully implementing the Defence Personnel Banking Package across India for the Army personnel,which is now being rolled out for the Navy and IAF personnel too.

‘SIT will find out truth despite Narendra Modi’s non-cooperation’
RAJKOT: The Minister of State for Communications and Technology,Sachin Pilot,said on Sunday that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) will find out the truth in the post-Godhra riots despite Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s “non-cooperation”.
Modi was to appear before the SIT in connection with the Gulberg Society massacre case today,but he did not turn up.
Pilot was in Gondal,36 km from Rajkot,to attend the Congress’ zonal meet of the Saurashtra region to mark the party’s 125th year.
The SIT constituted by the Supreme Court to re-investigate some of the 2002 statewide riots,had issued summon to Modi to appear before it on March 21.

Anyonya co-op bank wants Petrofil’s liquidator to pay off dues
VADODARA: Member of Parliament Balkrishna Shukla,who is fighting for the revival of Anyonya Cooperative Bank,has written to the official liquidator of Petrofils Cooperative Ltd to pay off Rs 19 crore worth of dues to Anyonya from the proceeds received on the sale of Petrofil’s property.
The Central government-promoted Petrofil has closed its operations. Shukla has pointed out that the office of the Liquidator has received an amount of Rs 87 crore against the auction of the properties of Petrofils Cooperative. Justifying his stand to ask for funds from the liquidator,Shukla said,“As per the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act,if a co-operative society goes under liquidation,realised funds are distributed proportionately among all creditors after payment of dues to the workers or employees of the society.”