The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jailtley has said that India may probably become the fifth largest economy next year. Given the kind of economic activity happening in India, he said that the role of the banking industry is going to be vital in strengthening the economy itself.
He said that the sector should do this by upholding professionalism, credibility and expansion. He said that the industry needs to use the occasion of AGM to introspect and prepare a blueprint for the long term. The Minister was speaking via video conference, addressing the 71st Annual General Meeting of the Indian Banks Association, held in Mumbai.
The Finance Minister said that the desire to have a high growth rate must be accompanied by strong macroeconomic fundamentals. He said that sacrificing the fundamentals for temporary spurt in growth is not desirable. The Minister said that growth with fiscal prudence is necessary.
Jaitley said that indiscriminate lending done in the past created funding of projects which were not able to service those debts. He observed that this was followed by the subsequent error of dressing up the bad loans. He noted that excessive fear of consequences in the old regime led to a situation where this problem could not be resolved.
