ICICI Bank 2008 Annual Report Download - page 7

Towards a better life
also benefit the existing participants in the growth process,
as the fuller realisation of the country’s growth potential
would provide new opportunities for profitable growth.
The challenge of inclusive growth has many dimensions. A
key element of an inclusive growth strategy is enhancing,
indeed universalising, access to financial services. This
implies access not only to credit, but to a basic bank account,
transaction capability and risk mitigants like insurance. The
ICICI Group, as part of its banking and insurance businesses,
is working towards meeting these needs. This poses several
challenges, as the traditional models of outreach are not
viable for large-scale delivery of financial services to the
poor, especially in rural areas. We are experimenting with
a range of models and technologies to devise scalable and
sustainable solutions.
Our commitment to inclusive growth goes beyond the
financial services element which is part of our regular
business operations. For many years, we have had a
dedicated team driving our social initiatives in key focus
areas, which included micro-finance, primary education and
healthcare. During the year, our Board has established The
ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth to take forward and
scale up these initiatives, as well as take up new areas that
require innovative interventions.
One particular area that is of critical importance to the future
of India is education. We are today facing a situation where
it is not employment generation which is a challenge, but
finding the requisite numbers of people with the requisite
skills to fill the jobs that are available or being created every
year. This is leading to the paradox of unemployment and
poverty co-existing with skill shortage and wage inflation.
We require a concerted and combined effort by government,
educational institutions and business organisations to
devise curricula and training material that are relevant to
the emerging needs of employers, and devise simple, cost-
effective and scalable methods for delivery of education and
training to large numbers of people. There is a need to rapidly
expand vocational training and basic skill-building for both the
industrial and services sectors. At the ICICI Group, we have
launched several initiatives in partnership with educational
institutions to provide affordable training in financial services
that will result in the students being employment-ready on
completion of their courses.
In summary, the outlook for the Indian economy and our
businesses is positive and we see ourselves participating in
a sustained period of high economic growth. We look forward
to the continued support of all our stakeholders as we grow
our franchises in India and abroad to achieve our vision of
being the leading provider of financial services in India and a
major player in the global banking landscape.
K. V. KAMATH
Managing Director & CEO
Annual Report 2007-2008 5
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