PM to attend two-day bankers’ retreat in Pune


Mumbai

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be presented with an outline of the Reform Action Plan at the end of a two-day bankers’ retreat “Gyan Sangam” to be held in Pune Jan 2-3.

The bankers’ retreat will prepare the blueprint of the Reform Action Plan for the country’s banking sector, particularly public sector banks.

While major reforms have been discussed on many occasions in the past, the fine print of reforms need to be outlined, said a spokesperson for the organisers, the department of financial services (DFS) under the finance ministry, and the Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL), an advanced training institute of the Reserve Bank of India.

All important stakeholders will come together at the NIBM campus in Pune and prepare the outline which will be presented to Modi and then deliberated upon.

The “Gyan Sangam” will be attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, DFS secretary Hasmukh Adhia, all chairpersons and managing directors of public sector banks (PSBs) and financial institutions.

The retreat will create a platform for formal and informal discussions around issues critical for banking sector reforms, achieve a broad consensus on the shortcomings, steps taken by the banks and the government to improve the situation, generate out-of-box ideas from the officials and prepare the blue print which would be adopted and then implemented by the banks and the government.

The topics to be discussed include — consolidation and restructuring of PSBs for better efficiency and capitalisation needs, effective risk profiling and recovery mechanisms, global practices and use of technology in banking operations, financial inclusion/financial literacy and direct benefit transfer, priority sector lending and interest subvention schemes, and human resources issues with focus on training and motivating staff.

The outcome of the deliberations, in the form of the outline of the Reform Action Plan, would be presented to Modi on the final day (Jan 3) of the retreat, followed by further deliberations in his presence.

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