India needs big, world-class banks: Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday (November 6, 2025) asked banks to adhere to system driven lending practices and learn from the past so that financial discipline is not threatened.

“We have many self-reliant practices which needs to be followed,” she said, while addressing the 12th SBI Banking and Economics Conclave in Mumbai.

Financial inclusion, which the bank and financial institutions have been doing successfully, is one of the important pillars of achieving Viksit Bharat in 2047, she said.

Ms. Sitharaman said the country needs big and world-class banks, and discussions are on with the Reserve Bank of India and other lenders in this regard. She said the “government is looking at this and work has already commenced. We are discussing with the RBI. We are discussing with banks”.

She asked lenders to deepen and widen credit flow to the industry, exuding confidence that GST rate cut-driven demand would unleash a virtuous investment cycle.

She emphasised that infrastructure creation is the government’s main focus, and capital expenditure has increased fivefold in the last decade.

(With PTI inputs)