Banking sector has to make big contribution to make India developed country by 2047: Sitharaman

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 17 (ANI): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has exhorted the banking sector to play a lead role in realising the dream of a developed India by 2047.
The Finance Minister observed that the next 25 years which the Prime Minister refers to as Amrit Kaal has taken off very well, with the auspicious beginning of India becoming the fifth largest economy of the world.
"We have so much and more to do, the banking industry needs to serve the Amrit Kaal, we have to see how best we can lift ourselves to meet the aspirations of a growing India. The Prime Minister has said that we need to be the developed country we deserve to be, by 2047. It is the banking sector which has to make a big contribution towards this."
The minister was addressing the 75th Annual General Meeting of Indian Banks' Association in Mumbai on Friday.
The Minister said that banks are the biggest catalysts to growth. "Professionalise your decision-making boards, there is no way banks can any longer run with a crony background, our government has ensured that there are no instructions given or interference made in the functioning of the banks. We need to take professionalism at a faster pace. We are conscious of the need to let the banks be, and let them run by professionals, with a purely banking perspective in mind."
The Finance Minister exhorted the banks to plan for the next 25 years. "You need to have strategies to meet the aspirations of the youth of India in the next 25 years. You need to make your portfolios so that they are attractive to the young as well and make yourselves accessible to them. Are you communicating to the youth, to women, are you offering products to them?"
"Are you comfortable in being a digital institution? How much training goes into this? Do your systems talk to each other? It will be a big missed opportunity if these bridges between banks are not built. IBA should plan to make sure that all systems in all banks, whether private or public, should be talking to each other for the purpose of the customer," she added.
The Minister said that such technologies also bring in benefits such as detecting fraud, tracking of wrong money and detecting unusual transactions. (ANI)