Banks to play important role in making in Viksit Bharat : FM Sitharaman

NEW DELHI: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Thursday, said that banks will play an important role in making India a developed nation or Viksit Bharat by 2047.

"Banks will have to play a crucial role in driving the agenda set by the Prime Minister and by your role, we are going to give greater momentum to achieving this dream," said Sithraman in her speech delivered at the 90th Foundation Day event of the Bank of Maharashtra.

The Union minister further said that banks will need to provide strong support to the infrastructure sector, ensure that MSMEs have access to need-based funding, bring the unbanked population into the formal banking system, and contribute to increasing insurance penetration.

Sitharaman also acknowledged the transformative impact of technology on the banking landscape, which offers customers a secure and user-friendly digital banking experience.

However, the finance minister warned, "you (banks) cannot have a digital system which somewhere gets hacked, and the entire system and the trust which is laid on it getting compromised. So you need to have a robust and resilient system for which every now and then you need to make sure that the firewalls are adequate, any emergency drill which you need to do, what if situation so you know to handle if there is an emergency in terms of digital insecure incidents".

Additionally, she highlighted the growing popularity of the UPI in facilitating digital payments, noting that 45 percent of all real-time digital payments worldwide occur in India, and the UPI is currently operational in seven countries.

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