The Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, organised PSB Manthan 2025, a two-day programme that concluded today at Gurugram, Haryana. The event was chaired by the Secretary, DFS and brought together senior leadership of Public Sector Banks along with regulators, industry experts, academicians, technologists, and banking practitioners. Eminent speakers included, inter-alia Shri Swaminathan J., Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India; Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India; Shri M. Damodaran, Former Chairman, SEBI; Shri Debasish Panda, Former Chairman, IRDAI; former Deputy Governors of RBI—Shri R Gandhi, Shri N. S. Vishwanathan, and Shri M.K. Jain; and former Chairmen of SBI Shri Rajnish Kumar and Dinesh Kumar Khara, along with several other distinguished leaders from the financial sector, industry, academia, and technology.

In the opening remarks, the Secretary, Financial Services, underlined that Public Sector Banks have moved beyond the phase of survival and stability and are now positioned to play a larger role as champions of growth, innovation, and leadership in the journey towards Viksit Bharat 2047. The Secretary also highlighted the need for PSBs to aspire to global competitiveness, strengthen governance and operational resilience, and expand their role as sectoral champions across both traditional and emerging industries.

The programme featured seven panel discussions, three expert sessions, a fireside chat, and open house sessions, covering themes such as customer experience, governance, purposeful innovation, credit growth, risk management, workforce readiness, technology modernisation, and national priorities. Deliberations focused on reimagining customer journeys in a digital era, embedding governance and operational excellence, fostering purposeful innovation, ensuring sustainable credit growth, strengthening risk management frameworks, and developing an inclusive and future-ready workforce. The discussions also underlined the need for process simplification, timely redressal of customer dissatisfaction, and delivery of seamless services. Suggestions were made for PSBs to adopt next-generation technologies, build common infrastructure or shared utilities, and design hyper-personalised products tailored to diverse customer needs.

The discussions stressed the importance of modernising PSB technology by moving beyond legacy systems to agile and interoperable platforms capable of delivering seamless digital services, enhancing cyber resilience, and integrating effectively with India’s digital public infrastructure. It was further suggested that Public Sector Banks put in place robust governance frameworks for Artificial Intelligence (AI), aimed at strengthening model risk management, nurturing responsible AI adoption, and instituting appropriate safeguards against emerging risks. The deliberations also underscored the importance of engaging with technology partners who ensure openness and interoperability, thereby avoiding vendor lock-in and enabling long-term flexibility and innovation.

Speakers highlighted the importance of collaboration with fintechs, academia, global institutions, and entrepreneurs to enhance the capabilities of PSBs and accelerate innovation. They also reaffirmed that PSBs are not only central to financial inclusion but also to national priorities. While their traditional strengths in agriculture, MSMEs, housing, and infrastructure must be deepened further, PSBs must also emerge as key enablers of sunrise sectors such as renewable energy, electric mobility, green hydrogen, semiconductors, shipbuilding, and digital industries. It was further emphasised that PSBs should aspire to evolve into globally competitive banks, with the scale, presence, and capabilities to support Indian enterprises overseas and stand alongside leading financial institutions worldwide.

The deliberations also underlined the importance of customer centricity, technology-enabled process optimisation, and continuous HR training to empower employees for a rapidly changing banking environment. It was emphasised that technology adoption must move beyond digitising existing processes towards re-imagining service delivery, with the objectives of enhancing efficiency, fostering inclusiveness, and deepening customer trust.

During open house sessions on key themes, leaders of PSBs shared their experiences, offered forward-looking suggestions, and raised future concerns around governance, technology adoption, and customer trust. These interactive sessions helped in shaping actionable pathways for the banking sector.

An important outcome of PSB Manthan 2025 was a shared sense of direction that emerged over the two days of deliberations. The discussions set near-term priorities around governance, customer service, technology, and credit delivery, while also outlining a long-term pathway for Public Sector Banks to align with sustainable growth and evolve into globally competitive institutions to realise the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.

PSB Manthan 2025 reaffirmed that the future of Indian banking will be shaped by bold ambitions and transformative purpose, with Public Sector Banks playing a central role in advancing national priorities and aspiring to emerge as institutions of global standing.

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