New Delhi, Aug 12: The government will ensure that IDBI's main role as a development financial institution continues even after its conversion into a bank through an amendment to the IDBI Repeal Bill. "The cabinet today approved amendments to incorporate provisions in the bill to ensure that the new banking company also continues to be a development bank, which will provide term lending to industry -- large, medium and small," the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters.

The amendment follows the suggestion of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, which submitted its report July end, she said, adding the Finance Minister Jaswant Singh wanted the bill to be brought in the current session of Parliament.
"As the operations of DBI had come under strain, the Reserve Bank came out with a policy in April 2001 to transform the DFI by evolving a cautious transition path to become a bank," she said.
Accordingly, the Industrial Development Bank of India (Transfer of Undertakings and Repeal) Bill was introduced in the winter session of Parliament in 2002, to repeal the IDBI Act of 1964, she added. Bureau Report