The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Hrudaya Suraksha scheme launched for poor patients

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Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Hrudaya Suraksha scheme launched for poor patients

Special Correspondent

SBI, Narayana Hrudalaya to extend it to deprived sections

— Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

Welcome: O.P. Bhatt (right), Chairman of SBI, greeting Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus at the launch of Hrudaya Suraksha Scheme in Bangalore on Tuesday. Devi Shetty (left), Chairman of Narayana Hrudayalaya, and Leeladhar, Deputy Governor, RBI, are seen.

Bangalore: The State Bank of India (SBI), in association with Narayana Hrudayalaya, on Tuesday launched a loan scheme for poor patients in need of cardiac care.

Under the Hrudaya Suraksha Scheme, poor patients will be offered loans by the SBI for treatment of cardiac ailments at Narayana Hrudayalaya.

The hospital will pay the interest component for the first three months and SBI will charge interest at the rate of only 8.5 per cent against the benchmark rate of 13.5 per cent.

The scheme, to run initially on a pilot basis, is being implemented only in the State. Speaking on the occasion, Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006, said that he was in the city to “persuade” the founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya, Devi Prasad Shetty, to start a hospital in Dhaka for poor patients.

Empowering poor

Prof. Yunus said schemes such as Hrudaya Suraksha had the potential of empowering the poor.

O.P. Bhatt, Chairman of the SBI, hoped that the scheme would mark a beginning in the bank’s endeavour to implement similar schemes for the poor.

The SBI was planning to launch micro mutual funds and insurance schemes to meet the needs of the poor, he said.

Dr. Devi Shetty said though there were loans to enable consumers to buy cars, refrigerators and homes, there were no loan schemes for meeting medical expenses for treating serious ailments. “The poor and the young in India are particularly prone to heart ailments,” he added.

V. Leeladhar, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said the concept of financial inclusion, first floated by RBI Governor Y.V. Reddy four years ago, had taken root among bankers.

In the last three years, banks had opened about 1.87 crore “no frill” bank accounts, of which 1.39 crore were by public sector banks.

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