Give important duties Setting the right example

The government has announced the posting of top executives — managing directors (MD) and chief executive officers (CEO) — to seven public sector banks. In two cases, the incumbents are required to take charge after the incumbents retire.

The government could have done better and posted them immediately as officers on special duty (OSD) in line with several other government posts. They could have taken on the designation of board member and directly reported to the board. In the interim, they could have been made responsible for all credit, management of non-performing assets (NPA) and credit monitoring departments. All these tasks are crucial and they would eventually be responsible for improvement in all these areas once they assume charge as MD and CEO. Why not give them those responsibilities now itself?

Further, one of the two executive directors could report to the OSD for those specific areas. This way, banks would benefit from reduction in NPA and also maintain credit growth. The incumbents retiring in the next few months could be made responsible for all other areas.

S Ravindranath Coimbatore group might have collapsed defaulting on repayments in due course. Eventually, a financial racket of around ~20,000 crore broke out in April 2013 as the group failed to honour its debt obligations. After Saradha’s breakdown, several chit fund agencies shut shop. The Securities and Exchange Board of India eventually stepped in and introduced amendments to the Sebi Act, 2013. It was promised that the regulator would resell the assets of defaulted agencies and investors to get some amounts — may be part of the principal amounts paid — from their investments in return.

In the light of several scams and fragile money market functioning, Sebi’s decision to deregulate CIS would hamper the informal financial system that earlier allowed the survival of chit fund agencies. The decision might quash the hopes of depositors, who have little understanding of the money market or capital market.

Kushankur Dey Bhubaneswar With reference to the report, “Death for four in Nirbhaya case”, it is a historic verdict by the Supreme Court. The entire country was united over the case, as the media covered it extensively.

With this judgement the victim’s parents can take some comfort after nearly five years of ordeal. The verdict sets the right example and will repose citizens’ faith in the judiciary.

Although the juvenile involved in the case got away with minimal punishment, it led to the amendment of the juvenile justice law. Juveniles involved in such heinous crimes will now get the same punishment as adults. Also, it is time that the ~1,000 crore Nirbhaya fund gets utilised effectively for the safety of women.

One thing that should be kept in mind is that the execution of the guilty in this case will likely not take place immediately as there is a queue. There have been only two out-of-turn executions in the recent past — of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru. It remains to be seen whether the four convicts in this case are executed soon or according to their turn.

Bal Govind Noida