The Indian government will soon name the members of a high-level committee on banking changes, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
The panel was first outlined in the Union Budget 2026-27.
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At the time, the government said the high-level committee on banking for Viksit Bharat would examine the banking sector and recommend changes needed to match India’s growth plans.
Speaking at the public sector bank (PSB) Confluence 2026 in New Delhi, Sitharaman said the two-day discussions were taking place as “the announcement on the high-powered committee to look into banking for Viksit Bharat” was awaited.
She told bankers at the event: “Sooner the committee will be announced and the material that you are producing from [the] two-day discussions on the basis of well-researched set of documents — which have been shared with you in advance — will hopefully provide the substantive meat for the committee to also look at.”
Sitharaman also referred to one paper dealing with young people. “It classifies our youth nicely into different categories… highlighting the fact 29% of India’s population is between 15 and 29 years.”
She asked participants to study the documents and discuss the issues they raise in order to produce “workable ideas” for the committee, noting that bankers would be responsible for carrying out any measures.
The finance minister said the department of financial services (DFS) had prepared thematic papers on seven subjects and described them as “very critical for us” to discuss. DFS is part of the finance ministry.
She added that the “content materials for each of them are well researched, bringing in the best practices from around the globe” and also drawing attention to issues that need discussion for the banking sector.
The seven themes of the conference are deposit mobilisation, banking for youth, support for the investment cycle, support for global capability centres (GCCs), agriculture and horticulture value chain infrastructure, re-imagining the credit card business, and priority sector lending.
Recently, Reserve Bank of India governor Sanjay Malhotra urged Indian banks to treat AI as a board-level strategy rather than as routine technology buying, warning that those moving slowly could lose control of the transition.
At the opening session of FIBAC 2026, the annual banking conference organised by FICCI and the Indian Banks’ Association, Malhotra said AI would be the defining force of this decade, in the way digitalisation marked the 2000s and liberalisation shaped the 1990s.
