'Banks have an important role in making India a developed nation', Finance Minister said this on the use of technology

The banking sector will be at the forefront of facilitating the agenda for making India a developed nation by 2047, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday. Sitharaman was addressing a program organized on the occasion of the 90th Foundation Day of the public sector bank Bank of Maharashtra in Pune. She said, "Banks will have to play an important role in advancing the agenda set by the PM, and with your role, we will give more momentum to realize this dream." Sitharaman said banks have to provide a strong impetus to the infrastructure sector, ensure the availability of need-based financing to MSMEs, bring the unbanked into the fold of formal banking channels, and help increase insurance penetration.

She added that technology was changing the banking landscape in that it presents easy and safe digital banking to all customers. However, she added, "You cannot have the digital system getting hacked somewhere and thereby the whole system and the trust in it is at risk. You need to have a robust and resilient system for which you need to ensure from time to time the firewalls are adequate. Any emergency drills that you need to do, you need to do."

The Finance Minister said you should have information on how to deal with an emergency. The minister also highlighted the growing popularity of UPI in promoting digital payments and said that 45 percent of all real-time digital payments globally happen in India. She said UPI is operational in seven countries.