Finance Minister urges PSBs to help shape, finance Viksit Bharat vision
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and Financial Institutions to help shape, finance and enable the vision of Viksit Bharat. She emphasized that the PSBs have demonstrated their ability to transform, and the next phase should be about converting this institutional strength into greater ambition, competitiveness and leadership. Highlighting PSBs’ competitive edge, Sitharaman said that the banks have a vast customer base, extensive branch network, presence across geographies, strong institutional experience and growing digital capabilities, which only few institutions can replicate.
At the same time, she pointed that every bank need not pursue every opportunity in exactly the same manner. She added that each institution should identify its distinctive strengths, whether arising from geography, customer relationships, sectoral expertise, technology capabilities or international presence, and build upon them. This will create a strong and more competitive public sector banking system as a whole.
Moreover, she said that the public sector banks are operating from a position of considerable strength and the task is to use that strength with greater ambition to identify opportunities early, to build capabilities ahead of demand, and also to ensure that institutions remain at the forefront of India's next phase of economic growth. Sitharaman’s remarks come days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that at least one Indian bank should feature among the top five global banks as India is progressing towards a developed nation.
