BHUBANESWAR: Chief secretary Anu Garg urged banks to adopt a ‘Red Tape to Red Carpet’ approach in credit delivery and align their lending strategies with the state’s vision for inclusive and balanced development.
Addressing the 183rd State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) meeting for the quarter ended March 2026 here, Garg called upon banks to expand credit support across key sectors such as tourism, agri-entrepreneurship, deep-sea fishing, food processing and other emerging areas identified in the Odisha Vision Document.
The chief secretary said that adequate and timely credit flow is crucial for sustaining investments and accelerating economic growth in the state. She also underlined the need to accord greater focus on the service sector in the next phase of development and urged banks to actively support entrepreneurship and enterprise expansion through improved access to finance.
Garg advocated enhanced credit support for women entrepreneurs and encouraged a progressive transition of successful self-help groups (SHGs) into small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
She further called for stronger coordination among banks, government departments, district administrations and lead district managers (LDMs) to achieve the credit targets set for the current financial year.
Principal secretary, Finance, Sanjeeb Kumar Mishra requested bakers for complete adoption of the central know your customer (CKYC) system to streamline banking operations and improve customer service.
Union joint secretary in the Department of Financial Services Shalini Pandit called for improvement in credit-deposit (CD) ratio and bring it closer to the national average, while the regional director of the Reserve Bank of India emphasised the need for expanding banking infrastructure and outreach in rural areas.
Top-performing banks and districts were felicitated for their achievements in banking and financial inclusion initiatives at the meeting.
