Shri. Duvvuri Subbarao, Former Governor, RBI on July 17th released Dr. C K Garyali’s book, ‘Bank with a Soul: Equitas’. The Chief Guest was accompanied by Mr. Rangachary N, Chairman, Equitas Holdings Ltd; Mr. PN Vasudevan, MD and CEO, Equitas Small Finance Bank; Mr Shridhar, Rotary Governor; Mr. Murali Vaidyanathan, Senior President and Country Head, Equitas Small Finance Bank; John Alex, ED & CEO, Equitas Holdings Ltd; Dr. C K Gariyali IAS, and many others.
Dr. C K Garyali is a founder trustee of EDIT (Equitas Development Initiative Trust) and the book chronicles the journey of Equitas and EDIT in transforming the lives of women with frequent social reform initiatives helping them setup micro-enterprises and pioneering financial inclusivity right from its inception. As a founder trustee, Dr. Gariyali has seen Equitas play a remarkable role in the last 13 years, empowering over 30,00,000 women by lending to them and helping them set up micro-enterprises, improving their incomes and enhancing the quality of their lives through health camps, job fairs and skill training. Through the regular health camps, skill training sessions, job placements, pavement dwellers rehabilitation program etc., Equitas goes beyond banking, serving the communities.
The strength of Equitas lies in forging partnerships. It has tied up with 900+ health facilities in India to provide free or subsisized treatment to its micro-finance clients. It has forged partnership with DAV Foundation for providing Samrakshna loans to most vulnerable and marginalised women in society, with Saraswathi Educational Trust for Education of the children of homeless pavement dwellers, with Rotary International and private companies for conducting job fairs, with government agencies for organizing Covid 19 Vaccination camps and distribution of benefits and entitlements to public.
Now it is setting up a state of art Cancer hospital in partnership with Sri Shringeri Sarada Math in Chennai for providing affordable cancer treatment to people on the lines of Adyar Cancer Institute.
As a bank, it has broken new grounds in providing inclusive credit to disabled, transgender and other marginalized sections of society winning worldwide acclaim and numerous national and international awards including the National CSR Award. It had provided livelihood loans to 70000+ disabled women out of which 8000 are blind. It runs seven state of art English medium schools in Tamil Nadu for the children of weaker sections of the society, one of them at Sivakasi in partnership with VKSD Nadar Trust.
It is currently in the process of setting up a cancer institute for providing affordable cancer care to the community in Chennai in collaboration with Sringeri Math.
The bank using the latest technology, works in most efficient and cost effective manner to provide best for its clientele. In the ruthless world of finance and banking, the presence of Equitas comes as a whiff of fresh air. It shows that profit making and social development can go hand in hand.
The book is dedicated to all the customers, employees, shareholders and every single person who is associated with Equitas, empowering this organization to work towards a better society. The book is the author’s tribute to the bank that is a sharing, caring and a giving institution. Gariyali says, “I hope other banks and corporates in India will also do more for social development of the country with commitment and get inspired from the Equitas Model.”
Former Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Shri D Subbarao in his foreword commends the Chairman, Managing Director and trustees of the bank for their commitment to the large public good and wishes them every success in their future social development endeavours.
Kindle and paperback version available on Amazon at Odyssey.
