Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday praised State Bank of India for establishing its Local Head Office for the Maharashtra Circle in Pune and highlighted the critical role of banks in sustaining India's long-term economic growth amid global uncertainties

Speaking at the inauguration of the new premises of SBI's Local Head Office in Pune, Sitharaman said the move would strengthen banking outreach across Maharashtra

"I praise the State Bank of India's decision to establish a local head office in Pune to serve the rest of Maharashtra," FM Sitharaman said.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey addresses the 38th SEBI Foundation Day, at the Jio World Convention Centre, in Mumbai

Sitharaman further said sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, and information technology require continuous backing to maintain India's growth trajectory

"Unless our domestic manufacturing, agricultural growth, tourism, IT, and other sectors are given constant support, India's growth story will be difficult to maintain, and in that regard, banks have a very big role to play," Sitharaman said

Sitharaman said Indian banks have remained largely free of any major incident involving cybersecurity violations over the decades because of sustained digitisation, regular system upgrades, firewalls and customer safety measures

Her remarks followed a high-level meeting held on Thursday with Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, along with RBI, NPCI, CERT-In and chiefs of Scheduled Commercial Banks, to assess risks from advanced AI models that could be misused to weaponise software vulnerabilities