Finance Minister asks banks to provide loans to urban poor

Finance Minister P Chidambaram asked banks to provide loans to the urban poor, whose conditions are worse than their rural counterparts.

"Urban poor are worse off than the rural poor. They may have slightly larger income, but on the parameters of space, sanitation, drinking water, air, their conditions are much worse than the rural poor," Chidambaram said after inaugurating Indian Bank's ninth branch for micro-finance.

He asked banks to be more liberal while extending loans to urban poor for education, housing, consumer goods and medical needs, considering that their repayment record is much better than other categories of borrowers.

Indian Bank has financed 2.37 lakh self-help groups, covering 35 lakh women

Technorati Tags: Business India