NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the Indian banking system is critical to the growth of the nation and the government in the last 10 years has been extremely cautious so that banks remain stable.
“The intention is to keep our banks safe, stable, healthy, and after 10 years you are seeing the outcome,” the finance minister said while replying to a debate on the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 in Lok Sabha.
Today the banks are being professionally run, the public sector banks are safe, stable and healthy, and have performed exceptionally well in recent years. She added that the metrics of the banks are healthy so they can go to the market and raise bonds, raise loans and run their business accordingly.
She informed the lower house of parliament that total bank branches of scheduled commercial banks have increased by 3,792 in a year to reach 16,55,001 in September 2024. Out of this 85,116 branches are of public sector banks.