Bad loans of PSBs are at Rs 20 trillion. Most of it is, I sense, due to corruption and behest lending. Nobody pays a price for this charade. Not the promoters, the bankers, RBI officials, finance ministry bureaucrats or politicians, points out Debashis Basu.
Foreign brokerages said if SBI decide to buy stake in the bank, they should buy it at Rs 1 per share as the net worth is hugely impaired.
The plea, filed by Delhi-based Bejon Kumar Misra, said the Centre and RBI should be directed to ensure complete insulation and insurance of the hard-earned deposited money of people in various co-operative banks, including nationalised banks, by enacting an appropriate measure of 100 per cent insurance coverage towards the deposited amount.
The finance ministry has proposed to decriminalise a host of minor offences, including those relating to cheque bounce and repayment of loans, in as many as 19 legislations to help businesses tide over the crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The 19 legislations include Negotiable Instruments Act (cheque bounce), SARFAESI Act (repayment of bank loans), LIC Act, PFRDA Act, RBI Act, NHB Act, Banking Regulation Act and Chit Funds Act.
Reduce the government stake in public sector banks to 33 per cent, recommends A K Bhattacharya
'LIC's proposed investment will come out of what is technically called the 'policyholders funds'.' 'As the name implies, these monies belong to policyholders; that is, you, me and 25 crore others who have taken a total of 30 crore policies from LIC.' 'It is not the government's or LIC's money to play poker with,' says S Muralidharan, former managing director, BNP Paribas.
'On the evening of the 17th, the RBI said the bank was put on moratorium.' 'Within an hour, the RBI said it would be merged with DBS.' 'How did DBS come to know within an hour that LVB was in trouble?' 'It means, what happened was match-fixing.'
Slump in realty market to add to woes, debt of top players likely to rise 15-20% this financial year
With certain quarters demanding privatisation of public sector banks in the aftermath of the alleged fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister chairman Bibek Debroy tells Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Ishan Bakshi and Indivjal Dhasmana that reducing government equity even to zero would not mean giving up of government control over these banks.
'These are interesting days for watchers of English cricket and central banking,' points out Amol Agrawal.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, in a unanimous verdict, ruled that its 2014 verdict, which had struck down a provision of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946 providing immunity to such officers in graft cases, will have retrospective effect.
PSUs will get direct allotment.
'The macro-economic stresses -- high interest rates, rupee depreciation and capital flows -- have receded now.' 'Interest rates have come down, inflation is down and the rupee has bounced back.' 'If oil prices continue at this level, there will be no vulnerability.' 'Growth is a different story.'
Lack of decisiveness and courage to deal with PSBs may turn out be the biggest impediment to the Modi government's economic initiatives, says Debashis Basu.
If this Budget was not packaged and sold as a Budget for the poor and for farmers, Narendra Modi would have lost the next election.
By registering the fresh case, ED wants to strengthen its probe against the beleagured liquor baron and expedite a slew of actions it has initiated against him
India's five leading wilful defaulters are Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd and associate Forever Precious Jewellery & Diamonds, Zoom Developers, Kingfisher Airlines, Beta Naphthol and Raza Textiles
Enabling the online booking and payment for Indian Railway tickets is one such case. Amitabh Pandey's book is about how he went about enthusing teams inside the Indian Railways and facilitating online reservations, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
Indradhanush-II is likely to chart out the process for resolution of non-performing assets.
'The Modi government has been taking credit for improvement in respect of the ease of doing business in India.' 'But when I look at the scams I cannot help feeling that it is too easy to do business with banks in India, if one is a Harshad Mehta, Vijay Mallya or Nirav Modi and their tribe,' says former Union home secretary Madhav Godbole.
India borrows ideas that we don't need, like the FRDI Bill, and ignores the ones we need, like rewarding whistleblowers such as the ones who want to save Bombay Mercantile Bank, says Debashis Basu.
'The entire value of LIC is created by its shareholders because after the initial invest net of Rs 5 crores in 1956, the government has not given any additional capital to the LIC.' 'If the corporation has expanded and emerged as the biggest financial institution in the country, it is only because of the policyholders.'
'Flush with funds, lending became a cash management exercise.' 'Road projects, power generation plants, airports etc were financed left and right with apparently no regard for the projects' ability to repay,' explains S Muralidharan, former managing director, BNP Paribas.
Many bankers say the move will have a serious impact on the chain of command of nationalised banks and that it would only enable the government to dish out favours to a few of their own men.
'For years, the RBI has been warning banks on probable frauds in bank guarantees and advised them to exercise due care.' 'PSB staffers feel their jobs are secured, hence there is no need to be vigilant and exercise financial prudence.'
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
In order to keep the interest of new and small players intact, the coal ministry is offering only small- and medium-sized coal mines in the second round.
'All that Mr Modi needed to do was to call Urjit Patel over for a cup of tea and ask him nicely, and this fuss would never have happened.'
'With the big political job done, the time has come to pay attention to the economy, which is the main problem now,' argues T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
'The entire system acted as cheerleaders to Vijay Mallya. The RBI failed, the banks failed, the auditors of the banks and Mallya failed.'
Officials said they have put freeze orders on bank accounts containing Rs 30 crore and shares worth Rs 13.86 crore of the group.
The government package for public sector banks, announced last Friday, has been welcomed by the stock market with the PSU banking index booking smart gains.
'All of Indira Gandhi's bad economic ideas are being strengthened, from nationalised banks to anti-poverty, handout yojanas,' says Shekhar Gupta.
It is not much of an issue just now, but it could become one if the idea of caste census captures socio-political imagination, going beyond electoral tags and identities, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Control over PSU banks is what is allowing the government to drive this scheme.
Since the court had earlier questioned distribution of mining rights through the screening committee route, experts say the solution worked out would be weighed on the basis of legality.
Exceptions were made for ultra-mega power plants, such as the one at Sasan, which the court observed were not under consideration, and for coal blocks attached to the power and steel companies controlled by the central government.
Choksi, along with his nephew and millionaire designer jeweller Nirav Modi, is being investigated by the ED for allegedly defrauding PNB, the country's second largest lender.
There are conflicting signs on India's investment cycle.
A total of 22,27,506 farmers have obtained loan of about Rs 10,736 crore from cooperative banks in the state.
