Indian banks must scale up, aim for global top 10: Amit Shah in Mumbai

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday urged Indian banks to go beyond mere growth and change their scale to aim to be among the worldrsquos top 10 news agency PTI reportedldquoI want to tell our Indian banks that they should not only plan for growth but try to change the scale Our banks should be in the top tenrdquo Shah said at the Financial Express Indiarsquos Best Bank Awards function in MumbaiReferring to Prime Minister Narendra PM Modirsquos vision Shah said ldquoThe Constitution speaks of three types of inclusiveness which are political social and financial inclusion and these are guiding Indiarsquos growth storyrdquoHe noted that PM Modi has set a target of making India a vishwagurursquo by 2047The Union Home Minister stressed the importance of supporting micro small and medium enterprises MSMEs for Indiarsquos economic growth recalling that conglomerates such as Reliance Industries Adani Group and Torrent Group started as MSMEsldquoIf a countryrsquos banking system especially the one in a country like India does not give importance to MSMEs it stops the growth story of the nationrdquo he said ldquoIf nobody had extended credit to these conglomerates India would not have had so many industrial housesrdquoOfficial statistics show that MSME growth slowed to 141 per cent in FY25 down from over 20 per cent in the previous fiscal Analysts have expressed concerns over credit quality in MSME lendingOn the global economic scenario Shah said ldquoWhile the world is going through difficulties with polarisation of societies and people losing faith in leadership India is offering stability trustworthy leadership and a robust economyrdquoHighlighting Indiarsquos economic performance he added ldquoMany countries are struggling at a one to two per cent growth rate while India has maintained a steady seven to eight per cent growth This is a huge achievementrdquoShah also cited investor confidence saying ldquoWe have consistently maintained a 14 per cent increase in foreign direct investment This reflects global faith in Indiarsquos economyrdquoSpeaking on structural reforms he said ldquoThrough the PLI scheme industrial corridors logistics parks and Startup India we have created a new ecosystem A decade ago we had only 26 startups and today we have 192 lakh In the last ten years India has moved from 26th to 3rd position globally in this sectorrdquoHighlighting future growth areas Shah said ldquoElectric vehicles battery technology green growth fintech space and defence manufacturing will all strengthen Indiarsquos growth story in the coming yearsrdquoRecalling the state of banks before 2014 he said ldquoBetween 2008 and 2014 loans worth Rs 52 lakh crore were given many of which turned into bad loans The banking sector was marred by corruption carelessness and lack of transparency Prime Minister Modi decided to bring in reforms to clean up the systemrdquoShah also mentioned the Jan Dhan initiative saying ldquoThere were 60 crore people where not a single member of the family had a bank account We opened 53 crore accounts and linked poor people with the banking networkrdquoOn digital adoption he remarked ldquoThe UPI has brought a revolution in digital payments Recent figures show that every second digital transaction in the world is happening in IndiardquoHe further highlighted Indiarsquos digital leap noting ldquoToday 52 crore people are using DigiLocker and 95 per cent of the country has 5G network coveragerdquoWith PTI inputs