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Sitharaman urges PSBs to capitalise on low NPAs for growth push
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said PSBs' gross NPAs fell to 1.93% by March 2026, urging banks to expand lending to youth and infrastructure ahead of a new banking reform committee.
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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told state-run bank chiefs Monday to use their cleanest balance sheets in years to finance the country's growth agenda. Gross non-performing assets across public sector banks fell to 1.93% as of March 2026, from a peak of 14.6% in March 2018, Financial Services Secretary Sanjay Lohiya said at the same conference.
"There cannot be a better position of strength from which to drive reforms," Sitharaman said at the two-day PSB Confluence in New Delhi. She said the government would soon form a high-level committee on "Banking for Viksit Bharat", first proposed in the Union Budget, to review the sector and align it with India's next phase of growth.
The committee will draw recommendations from bankers and field-level executioners rather than from policy drafts, Sitharaman said. "The ideas are going to be from the field, from the executioners." Once the committee reports, she said, banks should be ready to "press the button or pedal to rev up the Indian economy."