Have our bankers forgotten to lend?

No and yes. The rules of the game have been changed forever...

Last week, addressing public sector bankers at an event in New Delhi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked them to go back to branch banking. Going by media reports, later, at a meeting with the CEOs of these banks, Sitharaman urged them to lend money to the credit-starved micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) even as the bankers insisted that there has been no demand for credit. According to Sitharaman, instead of viewing this as a lack of credit demand, the bankers should prop up credit to the MSMEs. 

No one can find fault with the finance minister’s observation on branch