New Delhi, Feb. 5 -- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the formation of a "high-level committee" on banking in her budget speech for 2026-27. While she offered no details, the FM did say that this panel would be tasked with reviewing the banking sector and aligning it with India's next phase of growth.

It is nobody's argument that banking reforms are not overdue. The sector's health reflects the state of the broader economy and there are enough signs of it being misaligned with the national ambition of achieving 'developed' status by 2047.

There are problems in liquidity management, with liability management calling for a strategy revision. The gap in governance between public and private sector banks has widened. Human reso...