Mumbai, February 24, 2024: Leading Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), SMFG India Credit (Formerly Fullerton India Credit Co. Ltd.), has recently conducted their 6th Pashu Vikas Day (PVD), the largest one-day cattle care camp across the country. These camps were simultaneously held across 460+ locations across 14 states and provided essential healthcare services to over 1 lakh cattle.
In India, more than 8 crore households are directly associated with the dairy sector and women represent 70% of the workforce. To commemorate the efforts of these women, the 6th Pashu Vikas Day celebrated ‘Women in Dairy Farming’. This initiative reflects the ‘Social’ aspect within the ESG framework, emphasizing the significance of gender diversity and inclusion in driving social upliftment.
Apart from cattle care, SMFG India Credit also organised over 300 health care camps for community across the country from Feb 4th – Feb 10th 2024 benefitting over 30,000 people. The 6th Pashu Vikas Day in its entirety touched and impacted over 1,25,000 lives.
Pashu Vikas Day also witnessed active participation of over 4000 employees across the country, who volunteered and came together on a single day to drive this initiative.
Speaking about the company’s social initiatives, Mr. Shantanu Mitra, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, SMFG India Credit, said, “More than 90% of our rural customer base is women. A lot of our customers take loans for cattle procurement, which is a large source of income for them. Our community development programs act as catalyst for change and focus on uplifting rural livelihoods, enhancing overall quality of life and boosting income streams. Beyond livestock welfare, we also actively promote skill development and financial literacy, contributing to the holistic well-being of the communities we serve. At SMFG India Credit, we are dedicated to establishing a strong connect with our customers by fostering inclusive growth in the underserved communities through innovative and sustainable socio-economic initiatives.
Mr Swaminathan Subramanian, Chief Operating Officer, SMFG India Credit, said that the company’s focus is to sustainably extend support to the underserved, facilitating empowerment and upliftment of not only the customers, but also the community at large. “At SMFG India Credit, we remain steadfast in our commitment to rural development and our mission to champion robust social initiatives. As a leading credit provider, we aspire to harness the ‘Social’ aspect of ESG through our community outreach activities, inclusive programs and a diverse workforce working in unison. With this in mind, Pashu Vikas Day is specifically designed to address the unique healthcare needs of cattle and their owners in rural areas. The event powers aspirations of cattle-owners and focuses on enhancing livestock productivity, subsequently elevating household incomes,” he said.
This year, the company has set a new record with the World Records Union for the largest single-day cattle care camps held across the country. In the past few editions, PVD was featured in the 2015 Limca Book of Records for the Largest Single Day Cattle Care Camp organised across India, in 2018 as the World’s Largest Single Day Cattle Care Camp by Best of India Records, and in 2019 as the Largest Cattle Care Camp by World Books of Records.
SMFG India Credit is registered as an NBFC - Investment and Credit Company (NBFC-ICC) with the Reserve Bank of India, and a member of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG). SMFG India Credit started its India operations in 2007 and has established a pan India presence – across 600 towns and 65,000+ villages through 750+ branches and 18,000+ employees offering lending products to underserved & unserved retail and small business borrowers. SMFG India Credit’s primary services constitute financing of SME for working capital and growth, loans for commercial vehicles and two-wheelers, home improvement loans, loans against property, loans against shares, personal loans, working capital loans for urban self-employed and loans for rural livelihood advancement and financing of various rural micro enterprises.
