Mumbai: Indian state lenders should consider focusing on regional languages for better customer service, especially in areas where people are unfamiliar with Hindi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Sitharaman spoke Thursday at the virtual launch of a uniform training program, which includes modules on preventive surveillance, for induction and mid-level training for public sector bank (PSB) officials.
He said that while bank hires allow candidates from across the country to join, bankers need to know the local language of the area in which they are assigned.
“In some places where Hindi doesn’t work, we need to have a group of people who will have to understand the language of the state where their first destination occurs,” Sitharaman said.
He said Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers learn the language of the state cadre they join and the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) also allows their cadres to choose a foreign language.
“After all, if we want to compare ourselves to a service from all over India, language is one of the things to pay attention to,” Sitharaman said, adding that it is important that new recruits voluntarily decide on a regional language. in which they would like to specialize.
If you choose Hindi, fine, but if it’s another language, ideally it should be given exposure in the state where that language is spoken, he said.
“Of course, in the long term this will also affect hiring,” he added.
The minister said that bankers recruited from a particular state should be deployed to that state as much as possible. In case there is a surplus from that state, recruits can move to any other state.
“If they cannot speak the language, it is not a service for all of India,” Sitharaman said.
He explained that not being able to communicate in the local language has a jarring note, as at the branch level, bankers are constantly in contact with customers.
“We cannot impose a particular language (on clients). After all, they are dealing with their own money and they come to you (bank) on business and if we cannot communicate with them as they should be, that will be a great disadvantage in our service, “the minister told the bankers, adding that Los Banking services should be professional, robust, and sensitive to the people whose money you handle.
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