YES BANK launched a first-of-its-kind village adoption programme, one of the largest in India, by committing to adopt 2000 villages across the country.
The 1st YES DIGI Village was launched in Abhimayupur (erstwhile Amin) in Haryana, empowering 100+ farmers through digital & financial literacy sessions and introduction of Sim Se Pay, India’s first mobile banking solution for feature phone users & villagers with no internet connectivity.
Continuing with the Bank’s Knowledge Banking philosophy, ‘YES Digi Village’ programme is envisioned to empower village communities and 30,000 farmers with knowledge about Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) accelerated by creating a robust digital & financial literacy programme, making it the largest bank-led village adoption programme in India. Villages across India will be identified for the YES DIGI Village programme on the basis of available cultivable land, irrigation facilities, cropping pattern, credit culture among other key productivity criteria.
Commenting on the development, Sumit Gupta, Group President and Group Head : Rural Banking and Small Medium Enterprises Banking, YES BANK said, “YES BANK is committed to furthering the Government of India’s vision to ‘Double Farmers’ Income by 2022’ through ’YES Digi Village’ programme. In continuation with YES BANK’s efforts towards developing a digital ecosystem and furthering financial inclusion, in rural as well as urban areas, we plan to leverage our extensive branch network and harness the potential of our agritech partnerships through YES SCALE Agritech accelerator, thereby also maximize the number of lives impacted.”
‘YES DIGI Village’ is targeted towards enabling farmers with knowledge and skills to improve existing processes and explore newer revenue generation opportunities with the help of Agritech and Fintech solutions. To this effect, YES BANK also plans to integrate its existing capacity building programme for farmers in over 350 villages across states including Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.