Today, April 22, we celebrate the World Earth Day to demonstrate support for environmental protection. In spite of the fact that constant research and innovation enable us to produce various new, interesting things, we still lag behind in making eco-friendly products. The trash we see in and around us is increasing day by day. The need of the hour is to think out of the box and make products that help us preserve Mother Earth.

TS Karthik

Email

Weed out bad apples

India’s third-largest IT services company Wipro’s decision to lay off around 700 employees under the annual assessment process should make many fret and fume but there is certainly a method to the madness. Worldwide, companies are increasingly adopting best practices and it is imperative to weed out the bad apples and retain the good ones. However, firms and companies would do well to give employees a chance or two to make amends before giving the marching orders.

Rewarding the best performers at intervals could also raise commitment and performance levels several notches and benefit the companies manifold. Other companies, particularly those in the public sector, would do well to emulate the Wipro example.

NJ Ravi Chander

Bengaluru

Let the run freely

This refers to your editorial “Rebooting PSBs” (April 21). The major issue with the health of PSBs is, as the edit has rightly pointed out, governance issues, and not efficiency. Even today the dual regulation of the RBI and the finance ministry haunt the banks’ day to day operations. PSBs have been complying with instructions of the dual governors, which were at times conflicting also, rather than taking prudent risk compliant decisions. There was a concerted push to lend to major infra companies, which hit road blocks due to scams and policy changes.

The PSBs have robust reserves and provisions, which can be allowed to use as Tier II capital. The RBI should rethink of reimbursing banks the cost of CRR at the current reverse repo rate. The cost of social banking by PSBs is huge. The green, white and blue revolutions have happened because of the PSB priority sector lending.

Tampering with the bank nationalisation Act will be a retrograde step, as we know that the present situation of NPAs are due to inefficient corporates coming under the Companies Act. PSBs should be allowed to function independently with appropriate accountability to suit business priorities.

S Veeraraghavan

Coimbatore

How to save Indian banks

Unfortunately, the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) — for reasons of motivated mandate and functional constraints due to wrong guidance from finance ministry, instead of dealing with ‘financial sector reforms’ — went on a tangent and produced a report aimed at breaking the regulatory apparatus in the financial sector and disturbing the public debt management arrangement, which was in working condition.

Of course, the damage was minimised by the presence of Raghuram Rajan during 2013-16.

The institutional structure, management and the entire working of the four sub-sectors in the Indian Financial System, namely public sector banks, private sector banks, non-banking financial companies and cooperatives are overdue for a revamp and overhaul. After the nationalisation of banks, we have been trying measures in isolation whenever problems surfaced. Reasons for such a sporadic approach varied from political to ‘fear’ of consequences.

Governance issues such as inadequacies in credit appraisal and risk management, dual regulation, political and bureaucratic (read finance ministry) interference and adequacy of compensation to recruit and retain talent and professionalisation of boards with sufficiently long tenure of membership flagged in the editorial need immediate attention at the highest level. Quickly attending to these issues may save the Indian financial system.

MG Warrier

Mumbai

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