State Bank of India chairperson Dinesh Khara says physical, digital banking will be a mix of physical and digital

As chairperson of State Bank of India, phygital Dinesh Khara said that India's largest public sector bank will be a mix of physical and digital banking in the next 10 years, given the variety of customers and the kind of geographies we serve. He said that digital transactions are at 77 per cent and that the bank conducts 15,000 transactions per second without divulging more information on the numbers.

Capability utilisation in the economy has improved compared to pre-pandemic levels. It is now at 72 per cent. If demand is sustained, this augurs well for India. Khara said that India is a prime candidate for supply chain disruption in China.

In the last few years, Khara said that companies have de-leveraged themselves a lot because of the de-leveraging of companies in the near future. When it comes to SMEs, I think the interest rate cost is 8 per cent -- 12 per cent. He said that fixed deposit rates may witness an increase, and that much of it will depend on excess liquidity that is there in the system, which is another function of the kind of credit demand you receive going forward. Khara said that the way I look at fintech's role is that it offers an opportunity for collaboration. For an entity like ours, we are always looking at fintech as a solution provider and not as competitors. The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos is taking place this year from May 22 to May 26 and will feature the participation of more than 300 government leaders, including 50 heads of state or government.

The annual summit which was originally scheduled to be held in January had to be postponed due to the emergence of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus.

The Geneva-based WEF, which describes itself as an international organization for public-private cooperation, has held its annual meeting every January in Davos for nearly 50 years, but it could not take place in a physical format in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the 2022 edition had to be postponed from January to May.