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In a significant move to woo bankers, insurers and players of financial services sector ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Gujarat chief minister and BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday held a close door meeting with them and discussed various regulatory and policy issue related to the sector.
This meeting between Modi and the members of the financial services sector is seen as an significant exercise by the BJP's prime ministerial candidate to gauge sentiments and understand policy requirements of the sector, ahead of the general elections. The closed door meeting was part of the national summit on 'Financial Service- A Key Driver for Economic Growth' held at the Gujarat International finance Tec-city (GIFT) here.
The members of the financial service sector felt there was a need for a consistent law and policy framework. They demanded less regulation, deeper penetration for banks and insurance sectors, one of the participants in the meeting said. According to some of participants in the meeting, Modi assured them that he would definitely take up the matter with the Centre.
Dena Bank CMD Ashwani Kumar said that they have submitted an eight-page note to the chief minister suggesting the policy and regulatory frame work required to make India a financial services hub.
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO ICICI Bank Ltd, sought for consistency around policy, regulatory and taxation issues related to financial sector. Talking about the macro issues that need to be addresses to make India financial services hub, Kochhar said in her address, "First and foremost we need to bring back growth and vibrancy in the domestic economy which would include providing stable level of fiscal deficit, current account deficit and bringing inflation under control." She said that next set of initiatives needed were with regard to regulation, legal environment and taxation. "It is not only the existence of regulatory framework, legal environment and taxation that is important. The consistency around these laws is also equally important. When people come and invest in India they invest on a certain premise, and the fact that the very premise can change, worries them a lot. This becomes an inhibiting factor for them starting to invest in India," the senior banker said.
Heads of as many as 50 institution from the financial services sector including 12 banks, 13 insurance companies and 17 financial services providers participated in the closed door round table meet. During the meeting Modi invited these institutes to take up space in the GIFT city. The heads of the organisations included S S Mundra, Chairman & MD, Bank of Baroda, Aditya Puri, Managing Director, HDFC Bank Ltd, Shikha Sharma, Managing Director & CEO, Axis Bank Ltd, G Srinivasan, CMD, The New India Assurance Co. Ltd, Milind Kharat, Chairman cum Managing Director, United India Insurance Company Limited and M V Nair, Chairman, Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited.
Speaking on the occasion Modi expressed need to make financial sector inclusive in the nation’s development. He also emphasised on giving prominence to human resource development and job creation.
“We need to give importance to inclusive financial sector for growth,” Modi said, underscoring how this inclusion will contribute to the growth of the nation. He stressed on the need to involve ICT (information communication and technology) into taking the financial sector to great heights and said that for this the focus should be on providing ICT security, real time service, creating next-generation utility and ensuring high-end solutions.
Emphasizing on need to focus on skill development and value addition Modi said, "The amount of importance we give to infrastructure and technology, equal importance should be given to human resource development and skill development. We have to export both our labour and talent. Till we do not do that, we cannot compete in the global market."
He said that job creation was a priority for his government. "Our development model is more focused towards low-end activities. We need to upgrade that into high-end activity the sooner we do this, the better we can position ourselves on the global platform," the CM added.
Modi also handed over Letters of Allotment (LOA) for various key facilities coming up at GIFT City like, World Trade Centre (WTC), SBI Commercial Tower, Tier IV Data Centre of Tata Communications, Skill Development & Training Centre and an Outsourcing Centre for foreign markets in GIFT SEZ.
This meeting between Modi and the members of the financial services sector is seen as an significant exercise by the BJP's prime ministerial candidate to gauge sentiments and understand policy requirements of the sector, ahead of the general elections. The closed door meeting was part of the national summit on 'Financial Service- A Key Driver for Economic Growth' held at the Gujarat International finance Tec-city (GIFT) here.
The members of the financial service sector felt there was a need for a consistent law and policy framework. They demanded less regulation, deeper penetration for banks and insurance sectors, one of the participants in the meeting said. According to some of participants in the meeting, Modi assured them that he would definitely take up the matter with the Centre.
Dena Bank CMD Ashwani Kumar said that they have submitted an eight-page note to the chief minister suggesting the policy and regulatory frame work required to make India a financial services hub.
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO ICICI Bank Ltd, sought for consistency around policy, regulatory and taxation issues related to financial sector. Talking about the macro issues that need to be addresses to make India financial services hub, Kochhar said in her address, "First and foremost we need to bring back growth and vibrancy in the domestic economy which would include providing stable level of fiscal deficit, current account deficit and bringing inflation under control." She said that next set of initiatives needed were with regard to regulation, legal environment and taxation. "It is not only the existence of regulatory framework, legal environment and taxation that is important. The consistency around these laws is also equally important. When people come and invest in India they invest on a certain premise, and the fact that the very premise can change, worries them a lot. This becomes an inhibiting factor for them starting to invest in India," the senior banker said.
Heads of as many as 50 institution from the financial services sector including 12 banks, 13 insurance companies and 17 financial services providers participated in the closed door round table meet. During the meeting Modi invited these institutes to take up space in the GIFT city. The heads of the organisations included S S Mundra, Chairman & MD, Bank of Baroda, Aditya Puri, Managing Director, HDFC Bank Ltd, Shikha Sharma, Managing Director & CEO, Axis Bank Ltd, G Srinivasan, CMD, The New India Assurance Co. Ltd, Milind Kharat, Chairman cum Managing Director, United India Insurance Company Limited and M V Nair, Chairman, Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited.
Speaking on the occasion Modi expressed need to make financial sector inclusive in the nation’s development. He also emphasised on giving prominence to human resource development and job creation.
“We need to give importance to inclusive financial sector for growth,” Modi said, underscoring how this inclusion will contribute to the growth of the nation. He stressed on the need to involve ICT (information communication and technology) into taking the financial sector to great heights and said that for this the focus should be on providing ICT security, real time service, creating next-generation utility and ensuring high-end solutions.
Emphasizing on need to focus on skill development and value addition Modi said, "The amount of importance we give to infrastructure and technology, equal importance should be given to human resource development and skill development. We have to export both our labour and talent. Till we do not do that, we cannot compete in the global market."
He said that job creation was a priority for his government. "Our development model is more focused towards low-end activities. We need to upgrade that into high-end activity the sooner we do this, the better we can position ourselves on the global platform," the CM added.
Modi also handed over Letters of Allotment (LOA) for various key facilities coming up at GIFT City like, World Trade Centre (WTC), SBI Commercial Tower, Tier IV Data Centre of Tata Communications, Skill Development & Training Centre and an Outsourcing Centre for foreign markets in GIFT SEZ.
The participants of the summit also felt that as India’s financial and capital markets have acquired greater depth and size, country needs well planned Global Financial Hubs for serving the needs of both domestic and international clients. Such hubs need pragmatic institutional framework with policies and rules which should be not only comparable to the best practices prevailing at other similar hubs but also better so as to attract such services to India.
