Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev of the Coimbattore-based Isha Foundation has said the stability, reliability and resilience of the banking systems of the nation determine how successful a nation is.

Delivering the founders’ day lecture at Karnataka Bank in Mangaluru on Sunday, he said: “It is unfortunate that right now the nation is being rocked by banking scams. How stable, reliable and resilient the banking systems of the nation are will determine how successful a nation is.”

Vasudev said the country has not built too many men of money in the last 70 years, but it has built too many men for money. “It is good to have men of wealth and money because the nation needs that. If there are too many people who live for money, then that nation will suffer. I think we have that little bit of ailment substantially,” he said.

Stating that money is not a commodity, he said unfortunately people started thinking that it is commodity and started putting it in warehouses. “Mistaking currency for a commodity can cause a huge upheaval in the nation which we have suffered and are trying to correct,” he said.

Private banks

He said the well being of a nation is its bushiness and the stability. Well being of businesses will depend upon its banking systems.

Stating that handling of money needs agility, he said businesses need agility of finance, not the bureaucracy of finance. “I think private enterprises are definitely far more equipped to maintain that agility than large government enterprises,” he said.

The sense of how to manage money and who shall manage money is an important aspect of a social structure. In the process of building this structure the country has gone through many ups and downs. “But we have come to a place once again where our understanding has come to this that in the end it is the private enterprise which needs to run the banks,” he said.

Highlighting the role of private banks in the country, he said: “I think it is a matter of 15-25 years when private banking will exceed the nationalised banks.”

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