In a bid to achieve 7-8 per cent economic growth, President A P J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday spelt out a six-point mission for the banking sector, including more than doubling of the farm credit and participating in infrastructure development.

Inaugurating the first-ever bankers' conference 'Bancon', Kalam said banks should raise agricultural and agro-processing credit to Rs 2,00,000 crore (Rs 2,000 billion) from the existing Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) within the next three years.

Kalam, who was one of the directors on the Reserve Bank board before becoming the country's President, asked banks to create and nurture five rural development projects similar to bio-fuel project so as to create additional employment for at least 10 million youth.

Apart from participating in infrastructure development, including provision of 100 million quality dwelling units, he said the banks must innovatively fund 300,000 sick small-scale units to enable them to adopt the latest technology and overcome the problems to becoming profitable.

Kalam said banks should take the lead in providing concessional lending to creation of corporate hospitals to set up healthcare network for the rural community through medical insurance and encourage medical tourism.

Coinciding with the Planning Commission's suggestion, the President said banks should come out with ideas to utilise a portion of the $120 billion foreign exchange reserves for investing in higher yield enterprises.

The banking sector, which has a credit portfolio of Rs 8,00,000 crore (Rs 8,000 billion), had a tremendous role in reinforcing the economy by servicing the micro-economic needs of all the three sectors -- agriculture, manufacturing and services. -- PTI

President A P J Abdul Kalam with Anne Krueger (to his right), First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, and Y V Reddy (to his left), Governor Reserve Bank of India, during the Bankers conference in New Delhi on Wednesday. Photo: Ranjan Basu/Saab Press