Chidambaram says Mahila Bank will be a universal bank

Finance Minister P Chidambaram along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia gandhi today inaugurated India's first all-woman bank -- Bharatiya Mahila Bank in Lucknow via video conferencing from Mumbai.

Mr Chidambaram held a press conference after the event and said that men think they know what women want but only if women come forward will men really know what they want.

Here are the highlights:

• 8-member all-women board of directors for the bank

• Will add more to the board, we can go up to 12

• It will be a universal bank, it will provide every facility

• The bank will also address gender related issues, it will offer special products for women

• It will create more job opportunities for women

• Many gender related issues. Land is in a man's name but a woman can't get a loan as she can't offer a collateral for the loan. So these have to addressed.

• Men think they know what women want. But only if women come forward will we know what they want.