ICICI Bank to transform 100 villages into ‘ICICI Digital Villages’ in 100 days

The announcement is a part of the bank’s continuing effort to provide digital ecosystem across the country, including rural India, in the wake of demonetisation of high value currencies.

These villages, which will be spread across the length and breadth of the country, will enable villagers to use digital channels for banking and payments transactions.

There, villagers will be able to open bank accounts using Aadhar-based e-KYC and make cashless payments to retail stores through a unique SMS/USSD-based mobile solution. 

Additionally, ICICI Bank in association with ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth (ICICI Foundation), the CSR arm of the ICICI Group,  will impart vocational training to nearly 10,000 underprivileged villagers, especially women, to help them earn a sustainable livelihood. The bank will also extend credit facilities to the trained villagers in a bid to boost self-employment opportunities in the villages.

This is the largest village promotion programme in the country encompassing digitization of transactions & commercial activities, vocational training and credit facility to help villagers earn a sustainable livelihood.

This ambitious move is inspired by immense success of India’s first digital village, created by ICICI Bank at Akodara in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat. Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi dedicated the ICICI Digital Village at Akodara to the nation last year at an event commemorating 60 years of the ICICI Group.

Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said, “ICICI Bank continues to be a catalyst to accelerate development in our country. We strongly feel that technology can play an important role in putting development on a fast lane. By leveraging technology, we converted Akodara in Gujarat from a village to India’s first digital village last year."

"Its success motivates us to scale up the initiative a big way—we will now convert 100 villages across the country into digital villages. We will create a cashless ecosystem at these villages, provide vocational training to 10,000 villagers in first 100 days and offer them credit linkages so that the villagers can start their own business ventures. I am confident that this large project will contribute significantly to the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of a Digital India,” she said.