Gyan Sangam 2 Concludes
While addressing the press conference post the conclusion of the second edition of Gyan Sangam, the Union Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley said that the bankers' themselves have supported the proposal of consolidation of banks in order to have strong banks rather than having numerically large number of banks.
The
Finance
Minister
Mr.
Jaitley
said
that
as
part
of
strategy
for
consolidation
of
banks,
an
Experts'
Group
would
be
constituted
immediately
to
look
into
all
the
issues
related
to
same.
Bankers
during
the
Gyan
Sangam
felt
that
in
order
to
expedite
the
process
of
recovery,
need
to
amend
the
Debt
Recovery
Tribunal
(DRT)
Act
and
SARFESI
Act.
Those who participated in the two day Retreat include among others Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance; Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI); Shatikanta Das, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA); Anjuly Chib Duggal, Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS); Regulators, officers of the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance and top management of all the Public Sector Banks (PSBs).
Gyan Sangam Events of Day One:
The
two
day
event
commenced
with
an
address
by
Anjuly
Chib
Duggal,
where
she
welcomed
participants
and
set
the
context
for
the
deliberations
spanning
two
days.
She
also
outlined
progress
made
on
the
Reform
Agenda
proposed
by
bankers
at
last
year's
event.
Dr.
Raghuram
Rajan,
Governor,
Reserve
Bank
of
India
(RBI)
in
his
address
summarised
the
current
banking
context
and
discussed
potential
solutions
with
the
banker
audience.
In his key note address, Jayant Sinha, the Minister of State for Finance encouraged banks to adopt innovative transformative approaches, to ensure the sector continues to support strong growth in the economy.
The event also saw presentations on project financing best practices by experts from IFC and L&T Infrastructure Finance.
Representatives of McKinsey & Company, the knowledge partners at the event, provided a perspective on current state of banks in India. As in the previous year, Working Groups consisting of senior public sector bankers, subject matter experts, senior personnel from RBI and DFS were set-up.
The Groups brainstormed on detailing-out initiatives in 5 key areas viz.
-
NPA
management,
-
Restructuring
(Mergers
&
Acquisitions),
-
Credit
Growth,
-
Technology
and
-
Risk
Management.
The Groups had intense debates on the issues facing the sector, potential solutions and key initiatives to be taken to help resolution.
Gyan Sangam Events of Day Two:
The morning session on Day-2 began with a talk by Swami Sukhabodhanandji on 'Spirituality in turbulent times'. Thereafter, each Group presented a set of transformational initiatives to further the reform journey initiated in 2015. Each presentation was followed by an interactive Q&A session with the audience.
Ashwani Kumar, Chairman, IBA then presented the progress made by banks against the commitments made at Gyan Sangam 2015. He encouraged his colleagues to continue to further the transformation they had initiated.
This was followed by inspiring presentations by bankers who had executed successful turnarounds at their banks - Union Bank of India presented their journey on risk management. State Bank of India shared details of the ongoing digital transformation.
At the Final Session of the event, Jayakumar, MD& CEO, Bank of Baroda, presented the Reform Agenda to the Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, on behalf of his colleagues. He reaffirmed the Banking Sector's commitment to deliver on the initiatives that have been tabled.
The Finance Minister, in his remarks, congratulated the bankers for the ambitious goals they had set for themselves, and assured them of support in their endeavours.