Public sector banks get a pat from Pranab

October 21, 2011 04:34 pm | Updated August 02, 2016 03:38 pm IST - New Delhi

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee lighting the lamp while MoS Namo Narain Meena and H.S.Upendra Kamath, CMD, Vijaya Bank at the Vijaya Bank Foundation Day function in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee lighting the lamp while MoS Namo Narain Meena and H.S.Upendra Kamath, CMD, Vijaya Bank at the Vijaya Bank Foundation Day function in New Delhi on Friday. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Giving a pat on the back of public sector banks, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said the Indian banking sector has responded well to difficult global environment by meeting credit needs of the economy.

“Banking sector in India has responded positively to meet the credit needs of the economy,” Mr. Mukherjee said at the 81st foundation day celebrations of Vijaya Bank here.

The public sector banks have played a crucial role in shaping the country’s economic growth and they constitute over 72 per cent of the banking assets in India, he said.

The total number of branches also increased from 8,000 in 1969, when banks were nationalised, to more than 87,000 now mainly because of the banking industry taking up more social responsibilities, Mr. Mukherjee said.

He said the current global economic developments and, more particularly, the sovereign debt crisis of Europe have once again brought into focus the need for better co-ordination between monetary and fiscal policies towards improving overall economic stability and growth.

In the recent times, Mr. Mukherjee said, the global financial markets have been troubled by perceptions of inadequate solutions to the euro-area sovereign debt problems, exposure of banks there and renewed fears of recession.

Global recovery will also be affected by some of the fiscal consolidation measures being taken in some of the advanced economies, he said.

On efforts to reach banking services across the country, Mr. Mukherjee said banks have been given a mandate to make the best use of technology and implement the Financial Inclusion Plan to reach all the 73,000 habitations with a population of 2,000 and above, before March 31, 2012.

During the occasion, he opened 40 branches and 80 ATMs of Vijaya Bank taking the total number to 1,240 and ATMs to 643 in the country.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.