Make officials well-versed in local languages, FM Sitharaman tells banks

The minister also suggested to the Indian Banks' Association to roll out a similar training exercise for their clerical staff.

It is important for the public sector banks (PSBs) to focus on language training of their officers if they want to be in the league of all India services such as the Indian Administrative Service or the Indian Foreign Service, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.

Addressing the launch of the common foundation training programme for PSB officers, the FM said: “I would think it is important for officers, especially the new recruits, to decide on that one language in which they would want to specialise on a voluntary basis”.

Providing banking services involves interaction with customers and if the officers