“The sector is stable today after continuous prompt steps taken by the government. Many public sector banks are now back to normalcy,” he said.
In his address, he stressed on the need for banks to adopt digitization as a means to accelerate financial inclusion. He said that there is a lot of potential for banking and changes in the banking sector are happening at a very fast pace. He believed that digitization could not be avoided and should be adopted.
“It is possible to be more efficient if you (banks) go for full technology solutions,” Sitharaman explained. “Technology related solutions overcome many other problems. Fintech is the biggest area using which we are able to cross-populate data into forms. Be it income tax or GST also, auto populating data is a big help Auto population data that is otherwise available can also aid in credit ratings and can only happen with digitisation.”
He listed the merits of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and said that this financial inclusion was done in its true sense as the scheme managed to bring a large proportion of the unbanked population into the formal banking fold.
“When PM Modi brought Jan Dhan Yojana, he clearly knew that many of these accounts could be zero balance accounts, but he did not hesitate. He said that I want him to go to the bank and promote financial inclusion. Take it to the poorest people. The poor with Mudra loans and Svanidhi loans and slowly building on that… They ensured that everyone should have a bank account and be able to transact through a RuPay card , “He said.
He further said that this formed the basis for the government to distribute Rs 1,500 in three installments to the needy through their bank accounts during the outbreak of Covid-19. Along with the same, he said that the Center had also launched the Emergency Credit Guarantee Liquidity Scheme during this period. global pandemic To enable MSMEs to do business without collecting any additional collateral.