PSBs now positioned to play larger role towards Viksit Bharat 2047: Top govt official

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have moved beyond survival and stability and are now ready to play a bigger role in driving India’s journey towards ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’, a top government official said on Saturday.

Speaking at ‘PSB Manthan 2025’, a two-day programme organised by the Department of Financial Services (DFS) in Gurugram, M Nagaraj, Secretary, Financial Services, underlined that PSBs must now aspire for global competitiveness, strengthen governance, and expand their role as champions of both traditional and emerging industries.

“Public Sector Banks have moved beyond the phase of survival and stability and are now positioned to play a larger role as champions of growth, innovation, and leadership in the journey towards Viksit Bharat 2047,” Nagaraj stated.

During the two-day deliberations, participants discussed key issues such as improving customer experience, enhancing governance, promoting purposeful innovation, ensuring sustainable credit growth, risk management, workforce readiness, and modernising technology systems.

Experts stressed that PSBs must reimagine customer journeys in a digital era, simplify processes, and deliver seamless services while strengthening customer trust.

The event brought together senior leadership of PSBs along with regulators, industry experts, technologists, and academicians.

Eminent speakers included RBI Deputy Governor Swaminathan J., Chief Economic Adviser Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran, former SEBI Chairman M. Damodaran, and several former deputy governors of RBI and chairmen of SBI, among others.

One of the central themes was technology transformation. Speakers highlighted the need for PSBs to move beyond legacy systems and adopt agile, interoperable platforms that can integrate with India’s digital public infrastructure.

They also emphasised building strong cyber resilience and adopting Artificial Intelligence responsibly, with proper safeguards against risks.

The discussions also focused on collaboration with fintechs, academia, and global institutions to accelerate innovation.

While deepening traditional strengths in agriculture, MSMEs, housing, and infrastructure, PSBs were urged to take the lead in supporting sunrise sectors such as renewable energy, electric mobility, semiconductors, shipbuilding, and green hydrogen.

Speakers further stressed that PSBs must aspire to become globally competitive banks with the capacity to support Indian enterprises overseas and stand alongside top global financial institutions.

--IANS

pk