The President, Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil today said that the first priority of the Indian banking system must be to strengthen itself to support a vibrant and inclusive economy. She was speaking at the launch of centenary celebrations of the Central Bank of India in Mumbai today. The President said that the banking sector has enormous possibilities of expansion considering that it is still to reach the unbanked areas, and make banking services available to all individuals. She said that currently, just about 45 percent of the Indian population has access to banks accounts, and there is a low ratio of one bank branch for 16,000 people. The President said that banking coverage of the large population living in 6 lakh villages in the country is particularly low. All these facts indicate the extent to which and the many areas where banks can make a difference. She said that initiatives like the Unique Identification Document project, will go a long way to ease the concern of banks pertaining to basic information about their customer and thus, giving a boost to banking inclusion. Delivering her inaugural address at the function, Mrs. Patil lauded the contribution made by Central Bank of India in the development of India and urged the bank to continue the remarkable work that was done by the Founder Sir Sorabji Pchkhanwala and succeeding officers and staff of the bank. She emphasized the need for financial inclusions and extracted the bank to work towards this goal with redoubled vigour. During the function, the President also released a Commemorative Postal Stamp and First day Cover. Governor of Maharashtra Mr. K. Sankaranarayanan who was also present at the function, did a virtual opening of 100 ATMs of the bank. Minister of State for Finance, Namo Narain Meena, did the honour of virtual adoption of 100 villages on behalf of Central bank of India.