India’s first all women bank’s has now become a reality. In Mumbai, prime minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the first branch of Bharatiya Mahila Bank. The inauguration coincided with the birth anniversary of former PM Indira Gandhi.

With the launch in Mumbai, six other branches have become operational in cities like Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Lucknow and Guwahati. The other six branches were inaugurated through video-conferencing by prime minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and finance minister P. Chidambaram who was also present on the occasion. The Delhi branch of the Mahila Bank will become functional once the assembly elections are over, in the first week of December.

The bank’s objective is to focus on the banking needs of women and promote economic empowerment. The bank with initial seed capital of Rs.1,000 crore contributed by government is headquartered in Delhi. The bank proposes to have 25 branches by the end of March 2014.

Chidambaram hoped that the bank would remain not merely a symbol but the substance of empowerment of women. He mentioned that only 28 per cent of the women in India have admitted of have opened a bank account and the per capita credit to women is 80 per cent lower.

The bank will primarily serve women but deposits will also be taken from men. Bharatiya Mahila Bank Ltd. is a eight-member all-women board and the focus on centres where working women population is significant, including self-help groups.

The former executive director of Punjab National Bank, Usha Ananthasubramanian was appointed as the first chairperson and managing director (CMD) of the all-women bank, earlier this week. The government had also announced setting up of all-women bank in its budget speech. The blueprint for the bank was prepared by a five-member panel, headed by former chairman and managing director of Canara Bank, MBN Rao.