State Bank of India (SBI) will begin the process of collecting details on farmers with land holdings below two hectares following the announcement of the Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver in the Budget. ?The bank is yet to receive details on modalities of the scheme. The fine print remains to be seen. SBI has an agricultural portfolio of Rs 36,000 crore but data on smaller land holdings will have to be collected to see who will be eligible to benefit from the waiver,? SK Bhattacharya, managing director, SBI said.
On the impact of the sub prime crisis, Bhattacharya said, ?The bank has no direct exposure and loss has been zero as of now. There is no need for any kind of provisioning.? Bhattacharya who was in Pune for the opening of the bank?s 9999th branch said a major expansion drive was in the offing. SBI is piloting a financial inclusion project using smartcard technology for disbursement of pensions and payment of wages under NREGS in Andhra Pradesh. The bank will soon roll out this project to other locations, he said, ?By March 31, 2008, all the SBI branches across India would have core banking.?
