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Informist, Wednesday, Jun. 3, 2026

 

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--SBI Setty: India econ presents growth opportunity, shows strength 
--CONTEXT: SBI Chairman CS Setty speaks at Citi India Conference 2026
--SBI Setty: Next phase of India growth needs urban infra invest 
--SBI Setty: India's future growth must focus on rural sector 
--SBI Setty: Journey to Viksit Bharat in 2047 will be challenging 
--SBI Setty: Need INR-200-tln incremental invest by 2030 in infra, others 
--SBI Setty: India will provide largest AI use case in the world 
--SBI Setty: India will be among quickest to adopt AI use 
--SBI Setty: India's focus on CBDC rather than crypto-currencies 
--SBI Setty: See lot of interest in setting up electronics mfg in India 
--SBI Setty:Public transport electrification next big opportunity for growth 
--SBI Setty: Equity investment in India has to be patient, long term
--Citi South Asia's Gupte: Strong believer in India growth story 
--CONTEXT: Citi South Asia official Gupte speaks at Citi India Conference 
--Citi's Gupte: Indian cos' earnings growth strong, econ resilient 

 

MUMBAI - India will need an unprecedented scale of financing in its challenging path to becoming a developed economy by 2047, State Bank of India Chairman C.S. Setty said Wednesday. According to internal assessments, the economy will need an incremental investment of INR 200 trillion by 2030 in infrastructure, manufacturing, innovation, and other sectors, he said.

 

These financing needs will rise by another INR 450 trillion by 2035, Setty said at the Citi India Conference 2026 here. Banks need to grow and evolve to fund this demand. The banking system will evolve both with new technology and with a change in consumer behaviour by the time India's "Viksit Bharat" aim comes to fruition in 2047.

 

India's economy presents a large growth opportunity and shows strength despite the external headwinds from the war in West Asia, the head of the country's largest bank said. An encouraging sign of India's resilience was that investors had not changed or deferred their capital expenditure plans so far.

 

"Despite this... we have not seen anyone pulling back on the capex," Setty said. "We'll have to see maybe three, four months or six months later how the new capex plans will come into force."

 

The head of the country's largest lender also saw a huge opportunity in financing the electrification of public transport, which could see a transformation in the next decade. Setty cited media estimates of India's need for green financing worth $20 trillion to achieve its net zero emission goals by 2070, another opportunity for banks.

 

While India's demographic dividend would continue to strengthen over the next two decades, India needs to improve the workforce participation of women to fully realise the benefits, Setty said. The next phase on India's development journey must come from focus on rural prosperity and growth in urban infrastructure.

 

"The next chapter is to demonstrate how inclusion can be transformed into prosperity at scale," the SBI chairman said. "The banking sector will be at the heart of the transformation, not merely as providers of credit, but as mobilisers of savings, enablers of entrepreneurship, allocators of capital, and partners in mission building."

 

EQUITY VIEW

Equity investors in India must be patient and play for long-term returns as the country's structural growth remains intact, Setty said in response to a question at the event. India's equity markets have underperformed other Asian indices amid a boom in chasing stocks related to artificial intelligence, slipping to the seventh-largest stock market in the world from fifth in the last few days.

 

With India lagging behind in marquee companies linked to artificial intelligence, Setty said the information technology sectors will need to adapt and reskill employees. The deployment of AI will also require deploying a large workforce, which could benefit Indian companies if they are able to pivot swiftly. Therefore, while the impact may be negative in the short-term, services sector growth and exports are likely to remain resilient in the future, Setty said.

 

"I've not seen anyone shying away from global capability centres setting up here in India," the top banker said. "So I think the productivity gains would ensure that there is investment in areas which probably will improve jobs."

 

Opening the session, Citi's South Asia Cluster and Banking Head Amol Gupte also noted India's resilience despite the economy feeling the impact of the war in West Asia. This was reflected in India's recent corporate earnings, which had been picking up despite external headwinds, he said. The global lender remains a strong believer in the India growth story and its demographic dividend, the Citi executive said.

 

State Bank of India reported a net profit of INR 196.84 billion for the March quarter, up 5.6% on year but down 6.4% on quarter. At 1436 IST, its stock was at INR 963.75 on the National Stock Exchange, up 0.8% from Tuesday.  End

 

US$1 = INR 95.71

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Aaryan Khanna and Rajesh Gajra

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj and Rajeev Pai

 

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