
India has realized that the business aspect of India has progressively improved, despite the hurdles from global bank collapses, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday asked banks to improve their deposits, diversify the business base, and focus on ease of services and customer protection.
Government data shows that all the major financial parameters including credit deployment, profitability, asset quality and capital adequacy indicate that the performance of PSBs has significantly improved and they were well capitalised, resilient and have sound financial health. It was noted at the meeting that the asset quality of PSBs has improved significantly with gross non performing assets at 4.97% and net NPAs at 1.24% in March 2023. In FY23, PSBs earned a record aggregate net profit of around ₹1.05 trillion, almost triple what they earned in FY14. Efforts are underway to enhance the adoption of digital payment tools, with approximately 3.3 million beneficiaries being digitally active. The FM urged banks to lead a special campaign to onboard PM SVANidhi beneficiaries onto digital payment systems.
Nirmal Sitharaman has advised PSBs to increase rural, agriculture, and sectoral credit to meet PSL norms, ensure fair recognition of NPAs, address business model risks, and improve deposits while prioritizing ease of services and customer protection.