United Bank of India is one of the 14 major banks that were nationalized on July 19, 1969. its predecessor the United Bank of India Ltd., was formed in 1950 with the amalgamation of the four banks viz. Comilla Banking Corporation Ltd., Bengal branches, Rs. 147 crores of deposits and Rs. 112 crores of advances at the time of nationalization in July, 1969, today the bank has 1325 branches, over Rs. 29,250 crores of deposits and Rs. 15,522 crores of gross advances as on 31-03-06. Presently, the bank has a three-tier organizational set-up consisting of the Head Office, 28 Regional Offices and 1,325 branches.
After nationalization, the bank expanded its branch network in a big way and actively participated in the developmental activities, particularly in the rural and semi-urban areas in conformity with the objectives of nationalization. In recognition of the role played by the bank, it was designated as the Lead bank in several districts and at present Tripura. The bank is also the convener of the State Level Bankers’ Committees (SLBC) for the states of West Bengal and Tripura.
UBI played a significant role in the spread of banking services in different parts of the country, more particularly in Eastern and North-Eastern India. UBI has sponsored 4 Regional Rural Banks (RRB) one each in West Bengal, Assam, Manipur and Tripura. These four RRBs together have over 1,000 branches. United Bank of India has contributed 35% of the share capital/ additional capital to all the four RRBs in four different states. In its efforts to provide banking services to the people living in the not easily accessible areas of sunder bans in West Bengal, UBI has established two floating mobile branches on motor launches which moved from island to island on different days of the week. The floating mobile branches were discontinued with the opening of full-fledged branches at the centre’s which were being served by the floating mobile branches. UBI is also known as the ‘Tea Bank’ because of its age-old association with the financing of tea gardens. It has been the largest lender to the tea industry.
The bank has the policy of compulsory training of all its officer and clerical cadre employees. Every employee should have undergone at least one training programme of two days duration at every two years interval. Clerical staff members from all over the country are being deputed to its training centre at Kolkata. Employees working in South Indian and north Indian branches spend four to five days in trains to reach the training centre for attending two days’ training programme. Apart of loss of man days, the employees are reimbursed travelling and Diem allowances apart from providing boarding and lodging facilities at Kolkata.
The effectiveness of training programs is evaluated by the bank by seeking feedback of the trainee-employees and conducting tests after each programme in the training centre.
Question:
- what are the advantages and disadvantages of training evaluation by UBI?
- evolve a new evaluation scheme for UBI training programmes that is capable of eliminating the disadvantages from the existing evaluation scheme.