Banking Reforms Committee for Viksit Bharat: Suresh N Patel to Chair

The Finance Ministry has constituted a high-level committee on banking for Viksit Bharat 2047, chaired by Suresh N. Patel, a former Central Vigilance Commissioner, according to an announcement carried by All India Radio on Saturday, 31 October 2026. The panel has six months to recommend structural, regulatory and legal changes to the banking sector. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the committee in this year’s Budget speech.

Cooperative and Rural Banks Come Under Review

The committee will review the banking sector and suggest institutional, regulatory and legislative reforms. Its terms of reference include the legal frameworks for Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks, which serve most small borrowers and farmers outside big cities. It will also look at current banking practices and prudential norms, and compare them with global practice.

A fourth task is a roadmap for using artificial intelligence and digital tools in banking, with safeguards against cyber risks. Nothing in the announcement says whether any recommendation would change loan or deposit rules for customers; that depends on what the panel proposes.

Also read RBI Data Centre Opens in Jatni; Modi Warns of Cyber Attacks on Banks

Four Members, Two From the RBI

Besides Patel, the members are Shirish Chandra Murmu, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India; Padmaja Chunduru, former managing director and CEO of Indian Bank; and N. S. Vishwanathan, a former RBI Deputy Governor. The Joint Secretary (Banking) in the Department of Financial Services is the member secretary.

In the Budget speech on 1 February 2026, Sitharaman proposed a “High Level Committee on Banking for Viksit Bharat” to plan banking for 2047. Financial Services Secretary M. Nagaraju said then that an expert panel would examine issues such as India’s low credit-to-GDP ratio. Our earlier coverage of the RBI’s repo rate hike and other economy stories sets out the current rate cycle the panel will work in.

Report Due in Six Months

The committee’s six-month tenure is counted from its constitution, and the announcement gives no calendar date for the report. The government has not said whether the report will be made public.

Source: Based on reporting by All India Radio and Devdiscourse (PTI).

Image: All India Radio.