Chairman and Managing Director of public sector lender, Indian Bank Mr T M Bhasin has said that the pressure of rising interest rates would ease on the industry once inflationary pressure subsides. He expects inflation to dip down to 6% by March 2011.

In an interaction with members of the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce, Bhasin spoke about the bank's endeavors towards achieving financial inclusion in the country. He said that the bank has covered 4,637 villages of India and has also opened as many as 2-2.90 lakh no-frills savings bank account as on August this year.

He also said that the degree of financial inclusion is proportional to the poverty level of the people. Poorer the people, higher the level of financial inclusion. He added that financial literacy would play an integral role in inclusive growth of the country.

Although Indian Bank is based in the South, Bhasin said that it would now focus towards expanding to the eastern region mainly West Bengal owing to the potential existing in the state.

He also said the bank had given adequate emphasis on priority sector lending with 44 per cent of its total lending going to this segment.