Bankers skip monetary policy meet to attend PM's event

The bank chiefs have also cancelled the customary media conference after the bi-annual policies.

In an unprecedented scenario, the Reserve Bank of India has cancelled Governor Raghuram Rajan's meeting with bank chiefs on Tuesday to discuss the monetary policy, as the bankers will be in Delhi to attend the launch of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Standup India initiative.

The bank chiefs have also cancelled the customary media conference after the bi-annual policies.

"Bankers have clearly preferred to attend the PM's function over the Mint Street's key event - the first bi-monthly monetary policy for 2016-17," said a banker.

RBI, in a statement to media, said "due to unavoidable circumstances, the Governor's meeting with bankers as well as the Indian Banks' Association's press conference on April 5, 2016 stand cancelled".

The prime minister will launch the Standup India scheme and its web portal in Noida on Tuesday.

When asked, the chief executive of a public sector bank said, Stand-up India pertains to financial inclusion, which is also the aim of the central bank.

"Being away does not mean it (the policy event) is low on our priority list. We will very much be watching and studying it for our business. Stand-up India is being launched to promote entrepreneurship among Scheduled Castes/Schedule Tribes and women by providing easy loans of Rs 10-100 lakh," he said.

The scheme is expected to benefit a large number of entrepreneurs from weaker sections of the society as every branch of scheduled commercial banks would issue at least two loans to such entrepreneurs.