Shaji Krishnan, Chairman, NABARD, delivering the inaugural address during the Kerala Financial Services Summit at Kochi on Tuesday. Shalini Warrier, Convenor, CII Banking, Navas Meeran, Past Chairman, CII Southern Region; Santosh Kumar, Vice Chairman, CII Kerala; and D Naganathan, State Head, CII Kerala, are also seen

The vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 will require India to sustain annual economic growth of 9-10 per cent over the next 25 years, necessitating a higher domestic investment ratio and the urgent formalisation of the country’s estimated ₹45-lakh-crore cash economy.

Shaji Krishnan, Chairman of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), said this while inaugurating the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Kerala Financial Services Summit in Kochi. Citing the experiences of China and Japan, he said high investment levels were critical to sustaining rapid economic growth.

He underscored the need to expand India’s productive capacity through scale and systemic resilience. “Innovation and resilience are not competing priorities. Innovation without resilience makes institutions fragile, and resilience without innovation makes them obsolete,” he said.

While initiatives such as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana had brought nearly every Indian adult into the formal financial system, the key challenge now was to convert financial access into productive economic activity.

He urged lenders to move beyond collateral-based lending towards cash-flow-based and value-chain financing, while integrating climate risks into credit assessment.

Krishnan also cautioned that digital loan approvals alone did not constitute meaningful digital transformation without interoperability and seamless, end-to-end customer journeys. Calling for cybersecurity to be treated as a shared infrastructure utility, he warned that vulnerabilities in cooperative banks and small lenders could expose the entire financial network to systemic risks.

High-value knowledge enterprises

On Kerala, he observed that while the State lagged in heavy manufacturing, it had the talent and infrastructure to scale up high-value knowledge enterprises, tourism, spices and healthcare. He also highlighted the Kudumbashree collective enterprise framework as an important platform for economic growth.

Navas Meeran, Past Chairman, CII Southern Region and Chairman, Group Meeran, presented key metrics illustrating Keralam’s robust liquidity profile. The State’s commercial banking network manages over ₹10.6 lakh crore in deposits and ₹7.74 lakh crore in advances, maintaining a healthy credit-deposit (CD) ratio of 72.88 per cent. With Non-Resident Indian (NRI) deposits surpassing ₹3.24 lakh crore and MSME credit crossing ₹1.05 lakh crore, Meeran said that Keralam provides a strong liquidity launchpad for enterprise creation.

Shalini Warrier, Convener, CII Banking & NBFC Panel, observed that the sector is undergoing one of the most transformative phases in its history. Beyond foundational rails like UPI, Aadhaar-enabled services and account aggregators, Warrier outlined three guiding principles: purposeful innovation, institutionalised resilience, and cross-sectoral collaboration among banks, NBFCs, fintechs, and regulators.

Warrier identified MSME, tourism, healthcare, and education financing, alongside the development of global capability centres (GCCs) to position Keralam as an international hub for financial operations.

Published on November 3, 2026