‘Role of banks is important in making India a developed nation’- FM Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi| The banking sector has to play an important role in advancing the agenda of making India a developed nation by 2047. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said this on Thursday. Sitharaman was addressing an event organized on the occasion of the 90th foundation day of the public sector bank, Bank of Maharashtra, in Pune. “Banks have to play an important role in moving forward the agenda set by the Prime Minister and with your role we will provide more momentum in realizing this dream”, she said.

Sitharaman said banks will have to provide strong impetus to the infrastructure sector, ensure availability of need-based financing to MSMEs, bring people deprived of banking services under the ambit of formal banking channels and help in increasing insurance access.

She said the technology is changing the banking landscape as it provides a secure and easy digital banking experience to all customers. However, she said, “You (banks) cannot have a digital system which gets hacked somewhere and the entire system and trust in it is in danger”. Therefore you must have a strong and flexible system that requires you to ensure that firewalls are adequate from time to time. Any emergency drills you need to do, you should do.”

The Finance Minister said that you should have information about how to deal with emergency situations. The Minister also highlighted the growing popularity of UPI in promoting digital payments and noted that 45 per cent of all real-time digital payments globally take place in India. He said that UPI is operational in seven countries.