His master’s voice
With reference to the Chinese Whispers item “Reverse effect” (December 22), it is ironical that the latest notification on demonetisation is the 60th from North Block-Mint Road combine in the past 43 days. The visible ad-hocism associated with the government’s action plan at ground zero speaks volumes about the planning and implementation of its demonetisation move. In fact, the multiple U-turns on demonetisation has badly tarnished its image. The fast growing resentment and confusion among the people at large and the bankers are also adding more fuel to the fire.
I am inclined to agree with the tweet of Prashant Bhushan who said the “RBI is behaving like a headless chicken. Should be renamed Reverse Bank of India. Now we can see the damage Raghuram Rajan’s removal has done”. The list of the protestors against various RBI moves since November 8 is endless.
Needless to say, if the unceremoniously 'ousted' Dr Raghu Ram Rajan were the governor of the RBI today, things would have been much different. The present incumbent seems to be dutifully speaking in “his master’s voice”. Mind you, the ongoing developments on this issue may not be the end of the road for the masses as many more offending notifications could still be in the offing as the government’s dream project of making India a cashless gains prominence.
Kumar Gupt Panchkula the Centurion Bank of Punjab.
It is absolutely incredible to note the bank’s gross non-performing asset level is at 1.02 per cent of gross advances in these times of prolonged economic slowdown and enormous uncertainty and volatility persisting globally. This indicates the bank has a robust risk management profile in place and that the bank has a strong balance sheet to weather a storm and stay ahead in the race. It should not, therefore, come as a surprise that Aditya Puri (pictured), managing director and chief executive, who has nurtured the bank since inception has bagged the prestigious BS Banker of the year award. This one is a classic example of thriving on disruption
Srinivasan Umashankar Nagpur the public sector banks, due to crucial issues like mounting stressed assets, sluggishly growing business. Notwithstanding that, the government and the banking regulator have diverted banks from those issues and engaged them in demonetisation. Banks are using most of their time and manpower to comply with the changing guidelines on demonetisation which are being issued by the government and the banking regulator from time to time. Demonetisation has accelerated the outflow of capital from the market, and as a result, among other things the market cap of the banks too have drastically gone down.
Adverse situations like shrinking market capital, diminishing returns or losses, mounting bad assets, declining lending capacity all have to be corrected to restore the credibility and health of the banks. The resolution of the bad assets is more crucial than any other matter. The government and the Reserve Bank of India must lessen the demonetisation burden of the banks to enable the banks to spare maximum time and manpower to accelerate the recovery of the non-performing assets as well as for the recovery of the dues from the wilful defaulters. The woes of demonetisation need to be eliminated to ensure smooth rotation of the wheels of the economy. Since the financial intermediaries are the drivers of growth they must be given freedom to play their roles effectively.
V S K Pillai Kottayam