BWI: Great Lakes Institute of Management Hosts the First Financial Inclusion Conference

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Great Lakes Institute of Management
Friday, August 06, 2010 05:03 PM IST (11:33 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, People; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Banking & financial services, Business services, Education & training, Media & entertainment
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Great Lakes Institute of Management Hosts the First Financial Inclusion Conference
Padma Vibhushan Honourable Shri. C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India inaugurates the event

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Friday, August 06, 2010 -- (Business Wire India) -- The Union Bank Great Lakes Center for Banking Excellence at Great Lakes Institute of Management, a leading management institute founded by Padmasree Prof. Bala V Balachandran, today hosted the first conference on financial inclusion. Padma Vibhushan Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India inaugurated the conference at the Great Lakes Campus.

The aim of the Financial Inclusion Conference was to provide a platform to listen to the best minds in industry on topics related to: Rising trends and future of Financial Inclusion, Microfinance, Rural Credit and Inclusive Growth. The conference also provided an opportunity to present papers on topics relating to financial inclusion which the organizers see as a necessary step for achieving our Prime Ministers objective of Inclusive Growth.

The conference was attended by eminent personalities such as Mr. M.V. Nair, CMD, Union Bank of India and Chairman, IBA; Dr. Subir Gokarn, Deputy Governor, RBI; Shri R. Bhaskaran, CEO, Indian Institute of Banking and Finance and Dr. Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, a leading development economist, who all spoke on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Bala V. Balachandran, Founder & Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management said "As India approaches its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2020, inclusive growth is imperative. Financial inclusion is a great step to alleviate poverty in India and is one of the crucial factors for achieving the growth. It focuses on the poor who do not have formal financial institutional support and getting them out of the clutches of local money lenders. This conference brought innovative thinkers and policy makers together to advance financial inclusion"

Adding to the statement Prof. S. K. Shanthi, Professor of Economics, Great Lakes Institute of Management said "The intent of the conference was to generate ideas to effectively tackle the problem of financial exclusion that the poor and marginalized Indians experience. The ideas so generated can give rise to more research and also to help policy makers design innovative tools to achieve the objective of financial inclusion. Research has established that financial exclusion is symptomatic of poverty and addressing this issue is critical at this stage of India's economic history".

Papers presented during the conference include:

. Agricultural Banking and Financial Inclusion in Rural Areas Dealing with the Fragile Contours
. ICT and Financial Inclusion: some findings from a study on rural Indian women
. Innovations in Rural Finance to ensure Financial Inclusion
. Rural Populace's perception on financial inclusion: An empirical Analysis

Selected research papers from the conference will be published in the Great Lakes Special Edition on "Financial Inclusion". Best papers will be published in the Great Lakes Herald Magazine and will also feature in a Great Lakes special issue on "Financial Inclusion"

About Union Bank Great Lakes Centre for Banking Excellence:

Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai and Union Bank of India have come together to create a centre of excellence in banking, Union Bank Great Lakes Center for Banking Excellence (UBCBE). UBCBE focuses on research and knowledge management in the domain of banking in India. The centre aims to understand and map the inherent nature and the dynamics of banking businesses, their drivers and critical success factors. The UBCBE will also act as a data bank in banking for academic researchers. The intellectual capital of Great Lakes and its collaboration with Yale and Stuart School of Business and the operating experience of Union Bank of India will be leveraged towards the above said objectives and bridge the current research gap in the Indian banking sector.

About Great Lakes Institute of Management:

Great Lakes Institute of Management is one of Chennai's finest management Institutes, founded by Prof. Bala V. Balachandran of Kellogg School of Management. He established the institute with a dream of setting up an international class Business School in Chennai. Great Lakes Institute of Management has been bringing the best brains in the world of management to India with an objective to provide world-class management education. Great Lakes has tie-ups with eminent universities of international repute. Another such initiative is Yale-Great Lakes Center for Management Research, started in partnership with Yale University of USA. This center aims to promote, facilitate and advance India-centric management related research, which contributes to the development of basic and applied knowledge in the field of management. The centre will be a bridge that links scholars around the globe with India as a common interest.


CONTACT DETAILS
Dr. S. K. Shanthi, Chair Professor - UBCBE, Great Lakes Institute of Management, +91 9445162166, shanthi.sk@greatlakes.edu.in
Twinkle Xavier, Senior Account Manager, 20:20 MEDIA, +91 9884480115, twinkle@2020india.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, PEOPLE, MARKETING, BANKING, BUSINESS SERVICES, EDUCATION, MEDIA

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