PM Modi to banks: Focus on bigger role in global business

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed upon the need for Indian banks to focus on playing a bigger role in global trade and supply chain, while seeking better financial and corporate governance.

Inaugurating the finance ministry’s iconic week celebrations, where a platform for financial inclusion was unveiled for a dozen credit-linked government schemes, the PM said that it was now time to work on financial solutions for people around the world.

“The world is looking at us not just as a big consumer market but looking at us with hope and confidence as a capable, game-changing, creative, innovative ecosystem,” Modi said. The comments on banks playing a bigger role internationally come at a time when the government is seeking to integrate Indian companies with global supply chain through local production of finished pro-ducts as well as suppliers of critical inputs, such as auto parts or semiconductors. The government had adopted a strategy for merger of public sector banks to give them much-needed scale as even operations of SBI, the country’s largest lender, does not compare with global giants.

The PM also launched a special series of coins with Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav design that will be visually impaired-friendly. Modi listed his government’s financial inclusion initiatives as a key area of better delivery of benefits and argued that his administration had shifted the focus of policymaking from a government-centric approach to people centric.