After public sector banks and some old generation private sector banks, regional rural banks (RRBs) will join the common written examination (CWE) bandwagon for recruitments.
In a communication to individual RRBs, the Finance Ministry said the Institute for Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) will conduct a CWE for recruitment of officers and staff in the 82 RRBs across the country.
The CWE score, which will be valid for a year, will be the basis for selection of candidates in the individual RRBs. Depending on vacancies, individual RRBs will invite the candidates who have cleared the CWE to apply for selection. Final selection will be made by the RRB concerned as per applicable procedure.
Considering the nature of operations of RRBs, knowledge of local language is vital, the Ministry said.
Nabard to coordinate
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development will coordinate and supervise the selection process. The common examination is aimed at reducing the time, multiplicity of selection process and bringing uniformity in the selection process.
At present, IBPS conducts separate examinations for most of the RRBs for recruitment of officers and staff. This, besides being a long-drawn process, causes duplication of efforts and there are delays in the completion of the selection process.
According to Mr Dilip Kumar Mukherjee, Secretary General, All-India RRB Employees Association, there is an urgent need to streamline the recruitment process in RRBs as there has been virtually no recruitment for 18 years beginning 1990.
“The 10-fold increase in volume of business coupled with large-scale retirement from 2012 to 2015 makes it imperative to jumpstart the recruitment process. There will be thousands of job openings in the RRBs in the coming few years,” said Mr Mukherjee.
Numbers shrink
RRBs were established to ensure sufficient institutional credit for agriculture and other rural sectors. They are jointly owned by the Government of India (50 per cent stake), the State Government concerned (15 per cent), and sponsor banks (35 per cent).
The number of RRBs has shrunk from 196 in the early 2000s to 82 now on account of restructuring and amalgamation of RRBs to improve their financial soundness.
As per RBI figures, as of March-end 2011, the 82 RRBs collectively had deposits of Rs 1,66,232 crore (Rs 1,45,035 crore as of March-end 2010) and advances of Rs 94,715 crore (Rs 79,157 crore).