May 17 (Punjab Khabarnama) : India needs big international banks, just like JP Morgan and Citibank. NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam said this while stressing the need for reforms in financial services. He says that “we need big banks, more global players and a financial sector that can provide services to Indian companies not only in India but all over the world.”
He was speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit 2024 in Delhi. He said, “We need our own JP Morgan and Citibank that operate globally. This requires a lot of foresight. Our regulators will have to look into it.”
Another area of reform is the opening up of India’s external sector. Subrahmanyam says that the reforms of 1991 and 1994, when India became a member of the World Trade Organization, accelerated the country’s industrial transformation. He said that “90% of the companies that exist today are so big because of the changes that happened at that time. In fact, you thrive on things like competition and license expiration. Now there is no need for any major reforms.”
Subrahmanyam admitted that some companies “may perish” in an open economy, but this is the “law of capitalism”. He said that “Some will end but many more will emerge.” Overall, the scope of the economy will be quite large.”
According to Subrahmanyam, the third area of reforms is education and skilling. He said that “the answers are quite difficult. But unless we solve the difficult problems, other things will not happen.”
He said that India has done well in generating employment, but not enough in the labor sector. There is a need for improvement in the implementation of rules and laws in this sector. He said that “I think that every industrial sector of India should be made an enclave (special economic zone) which will benefit from less regulations and less control.”
