Cooperative Banks must invest in IT infrastructure

Keynote address by guest of honour at FCBA 2021. Edited excerpts:

Sanjeev Kaushik is Additional Secretary (FS), Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He has had 12-year stint in global investment banking as Managing Director of Equities at HSBC and as MD of Lehman Brothers in Mumbai. Prior to that, he worked in Capital Markets at Bank of America Securities in London. He completed his MBA in 1999. In the Govt. of Kerala, Sanjeev has served in various capacities including State Principal Secretary for Finance, Chairman & MD of Kerala Financial Corporation, Deputy CEO of Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund and CEO of Vizhinjam Intl Port. He was the District Collector of Palakkad and also Founding Director who established the national business school, IIM Kozhikode.

Cooperative banking plays an extremely important role in contributing to various aspects of the development of the agricultural and rural economy. I would like to also mention the significant contribution during the pandemic. They were reaching to remote areas to provide all types of benefits all over the country. For example, crediting the PM KISAN NIDHI in the accounts of the farmers directly, and a lot of these initiatives by the government of India have been benefitted the people during the lockdown.