Eyeing the over Rs 20 lakh crore debt requirement of sunrise sectors, the country's largest lender SBI on Saturday launched a centre of excellence (CoE) to better understand such areas from a financing perspective.
Christened as "Chakra", the platform will look at channelling funding to the right identified sunrise sectors like data centres and renewable energy, keeping lenders updated with developments in the sectors witnessing high rate of technological advancements, and also enhance coordination.
A slew of public sector banks, think-tanks, advocacy groups and also Japanese lenders, including SMBC and MUFG, have joined the initiative.
Speaking at the event, Department of Financial Services secretary M Nagaraju asked public sector banks to concentrate on two-three sectors of the eight identified ones. They should not concentrate only on one sector, Nagaraju said, adding that doing so will also help diversify risks.
In the comments that come on the eve of the Union budget announcement, Nagaraju said the focus has shifted for Indian banks from balance street strengthening to strategic expansion.
SBI chairman C S Setty said the bank estimates an overall funding requirement of Rs 100 lakh crore for the sunrise sectors over the next five years, of which Rs 22 lakh crore will have to be filled by the debt route, where banks will have a role to play.
He, however, added that Chakra's role is beyond merely tapping lending opportunities for banks, underlining that developing the entire framework to facilitate lending and also risk assessment to avoid certain businesses will be a big part.
To start with, the Japanese banks who are the largest lenders to data centres business in the world are joining the platform, Setty said, adding that the platform is open and private sector banks will also join. When asked about the risk from the artificial intelligence segment, given the concerns around the world on it being a bubble, Setty seemed to be confident of India's position on it.
Also read: SBI projects India’s rise to upper-middle income by 2030
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