NEW YORK CITY (TIP): The Consulate General of India in association with State Bank of India and TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) hosted a conversation by Chairman of State Bank of India, Mrs.Arundhati Bhattacharya on July 5th, 2016 at the Consulate. The event was attended by a large group of executives from the FinTech, IT, Pharma space and also entrepreneurs representing key sectors besides media.

Consul General Ambassador (Mrs.) Riva Ganguly Das welcomed the chairman of SBI and spoke about the strong relationship that India and US share and the important role played by the Indian American community inthis relationship.

In her conversation on ‘India-Changing Economic Landscape -Opportunities and Challenges, Mrs. Arundhati Bhattacharyasaid India’s banking sector currently faces some stress mainly due to “stalling” of projects between 2011-2013 and efforts are on to ensure the “de-bottlenecking” of these projects. She recognized the impressive impact technology has made in all sectors of Indian markets, especially in the banking system. Chairman Bhattacharya, who had met investors and rating agencies during her visit to the city, said the macro-economic parameters in the country are “very good”, saying the fiscal deficit is well contained. She further pointed out that inflation is “quite well-contained”, interest rates are also coming off from their historical highs and “currently they are quite low but may be not low enough to really kick start a lot of investments”. Adding to this she mentioned that the government has given the right kind of impetus with its various flagship programs like Startup India and Digital India.

This was followed by a dialogue moderated by Mr. SreeSreenivasan, Former Chief Digital Officer, Columbia University.