New Delhi, Sep 1: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the India Post Payments Bank or IPPB, a tep to provide banking services in rural areas with the help of the vast network of post offices across the country. After launching the IPPB, PM Modi made scathing attack on the previous governmet, led by the Congress, and said the country's economy was on a landmine in 2014.

"Just a few days after our government came to power, we realised that the Congress had left the nation’s economy on a land mine," PM said at the IPPB launch event. He also mantioned that India's GDP growth for the first quarter of 2018-19 accelerated to 8.2 per cent. "On one hand Indian sportsperson have given the best ever performance at the Asian Games, on the other hand our country has got a medal because of the GDP figures," he said.

Repeating his 'naamdar (dynast)' barb at the Congress, PM said the party gave big loans to the riches. "Among riches, whoever need a loan, they used to call 'naamdar'," said PM Modi. "On contrary, our government took action against 12 biggest defaulters who were given loans before 2014. I want to assure the country that none of these big loans was given by our government," he added.

What is India Post Payments Bank or IPPB?

IPPB will offer a range of facilities such as savings and current accounts, money transfer, direct benefit transfers and bill and utility payments at 1.55 lakh post offices across the country by the end of this year. At present, IPPB is operational at 650 branches and 3250 access points spread across the country. All post offices spread across the country will be linked to IPPB.

IPPB with link to 1.55 lakh post offices (that’s nearly 2.5 times the bank network) will become the country's largest banking network. It will work as an agent of Punjab National Bank and may offer third-party products. It can accept deposists upto Rs 1 lakh and can't give loans. 17 crore postal savings bank (PSB) accounts will be linked with IPPB.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 01, 2018 05:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).