FM asks India Inc to look beyond banks for finance, BFSI News, ET BFSI

Mumbai: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told India Inc on Tuesday that there is a move to enable the industry to meet its funding needs from markets rather than banks. Among alternate financing measures, the government is looking at allowing insurance bonds instead of bank guarantees, a senior government official said.

In her first visit to Mumbai after the second wave of the pandemic, the finance minister addressed industry leaders at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) interaction on Tuesday evening. Later, she attended a dinner meeting with industry chiefs, including Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran.

The FM said that industry dependence on banks would be further reduced by the operationalisation of the new development finance institution, which will take over long-term lending and also provide competition to banks. The FM emphasised the need for government and industry to work together to “create India’s own equity capital”.