Business Today 15 March 2026

As 2025 was ending, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India had boarded the “Reform Express”, adding the year would be remembered for its focus on reforms as a continuous national mission, building on the ground covered over the past 11 years. Few sectors reflect that journey better than banking. After over a decade spent repairing balance sheets and rebuilding capital, India’s financial sector looks stable. India’s central bank has played a key role in this makeover, undertaking a series of decisive reforms to ensure the sector meets the needs of a growing economy. That process is set to continue. The recently announced High-Level Committee on Banking for Viksit Bharat is expected to propose more reforms to boost growth. This is the backdrop in which the 30th edition of the BT-KPMG…

For the longest time, if you asked any banker what kept them up at night, the answer was always the same—bad loans. Cut to 2026, the balance sheets are cleaner than ever, and the crisis isn’t about the money going out and not coming back, but about the money that’s refusing to come in—deposits. And it’s a bigger problem than you might think. Let’s dive in: CREDIT–DEPOSIT MISMATCH Everyone wants a loan—for cars, homes, or businesses. But banks need deposits to match credit demand. The Credit-Deposit (CD) ratio is now at a 20-year high of 82%. So, for every `100, banks have already lent out `82. After the mandatory reserves they keep with the RBI, there’s very little spare cash left behind * FY26 DATA TILL NOV 2025; SOURCE CMIE…

AS GOVERNMENTS grapple with pressures on growth and jobs, Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has a front-row view of the fault lines across the global economy. She has spent decades at the intersection of economics and development—shaping responses to major shocks and making the case for growth that is resilient and inclusive. A Bulgarian economist, she has led the IMF since October 2019, after serving as CEO of the World Bank and holding senior roles at the European Commission, including overseeing the EU budget and directing humanitarian aid and crisis response. Now, as artificial intelligence (AI) begins to reorder productivity and the nature of work, Georgieva sees a familiar policy dilemma—how to capture the gains while cushioning those most exposed to disruption, especially vulnerable workers and…

The reserve bank of India (RBI) recently announced a major overhaul of rules governing external commercial borrowing (ECB), providing a boost for companies looking to raise money abroad. Not only has the borrowing limit been raised, but the maturity period too has been made more flexible, and pricing made more market-linked. End-use norms have also been liberalised. This gives India Inc wider access to foreign capital at competitive interest rates. The decisions could fuel a surge in fundraising via ECBs, especially at a time interest rates in key geographies like the US and Europe are expected to fall further this year. ECBs are essentially funds that companies raise via foreign sources. It could either be in foreign currency or in rupee-denominated loans or bonds. Such borrowings are typically used for…

For most of the short history of artificial intelligence (AI) summits, the conversation has happened elsewhere. Bletchley Park in the UK, Seoul in South Korea, and Paris, France. The countries that build the most powerful AI models set the agenda, and everyone else showed up to respond. In mid-February, for the first time, the Global South got to run the meeting. The India AI Impact Summit, held from February 16 to 21 at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, was more than just a change of venue. India came in with a different set of questions entirely, not just who controls the technology, but who it actually reaches. The week ended with 88 countries signing a declaration, hundreds of billions of dollars in investment pledges and launch of India’s first…

India’s banking sector has completed a full cycle over the past decade—from high non-performing assets (NPAs) and a long phase of balance sheet repair to high profitability and robust capital levels. The result: Vigorous credit growth after the pandemic. However, in FY25, loan growth showed signs of moderation, raising questions about demand and high base effect. With credit growth central to India’s goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy, the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are addressing these issues with utmost urgency. BT talks with HSBC India CEO Hitendra Dave to understand the sector’s challenges and opportunities. Edited excerpts: Q: On credit growth challenges in the banking industry. A: It is fair to say that, at least in the last couple of decades, the banking industry has…