Structural failure

You have hit the nail on the head by saying in your editorial “One bad apple?” (August 8); there is a structural weakness in the basic governance system of PSBs. The short tenure of top chiefs often in an alien or non-parent bank, one-man authority, giving merit the go-by and an unprofessional approach are some of the reasons for the problem. Actually, it may not be a case of one bad apple; there may be only a few good apples in the basket.

Vazhuthur Raghavan

Bangalore

The editorial is an objective analysis and throws up pertinent questions that demand immediate resolution. The very appointment of CMDs and directors of PSU banks by the Government stands in the way of their independent and judicious functioning as they would be tempted to curry favour with their political masters. It is imperative they are offered reasonably longer tenures to make an impact on the banks they head and also enticing pay-packets to attract the cream of banking talents/minds.

Their selection must be done by professionals of rectitude and integrity. What happened in Syndicate Bank has happened earlier and is likely to happen again if the right lessons are not learnt.

CG Kuriakose

Kothamangalam, Kerala

The board of directors of the bank and the RBI must explain an NPA account can be manipulated to be treated as a performing asset. What is the role played by statutory auditors and internal auditors in the given case? There are well laid-out parameters to classify an account as NPA based on the recovery made which cannot be violated so easily as many tiers are involved in the classification. It is time for the Central bank to initiate steps to make a thorough check of all the loans and advances portfolio of the bank.

S Kalyanasundaram

Email

The governance issue is daunting because of the political appointments. The result is that the top-level appointees are obliged to their political bosses. The suggestion that only privatisation will improve efficiency is not acceptable. The boards of PSBs have the expertise to handle complex issues because of their experience at the ground level.

The RBI governor is right in saying there are genuine and experienced personnel in PSBs and such isolated incidents should not be used to tar on the entire PSB workforce. There may be more such cases in private sector banks, but because they are not under the scanner, such incidents are not reported. What is required now is non-interference from politicians in decision-making by PSBs at the macro and micro levels. The single pill of privatisation will kill the progress made by PSBs in the development of the economy since nationalisation.

S Veeraraghavan

Madurai

Solve the problem

It is unfortunate that the conduct of the Civil Services examination has snowballed into a burning issue. It is evident that after the introduction of the new scheme in 2011, students with a humanities background have been finding it extremely difficult to clear the examination.

Our results too attest this. Out of the 25 candidates selected from among the students of the Civil Service Institute Pala, 21 were engineers, two were doctors while the other two were post-graduates in mathematics and physics. It would be more reasonable and practical to consider CSAT Paper II as qualifying in nature just like the two compulsory language papers of the Main written examination. Admission to the written exam may be made on the basis of marks obtained in Paper I of the preliminary exam by candidates who have scored above the cut-off in CSAT (paper II). The UPSC may prescribe a cut-off percentage for the qualification of CSAT paper II. It would be best if candidates were provided questions in all the Indian languages, and English.

Jospeh Vettickan

Pala, Kerala

Defaming the industry

This is with reference to the editorial “One bad apple” (August 8) which brings to fore the dire need to revamp the governance of PSBs It is reasonable to think that NPAs are the result of the nexus between officials and borrowers. Banks must be protected from dishonest people.

NR Nagarajan

Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu

As a former bank employee, I feel ashamed to note the corrupt practices engineered by senior bank officials in different nationalised banks. This is definitely killing the age-old clean image of the banking industry. It is all the more shameful that despite getting a good package including many extra facilities, high-ranking bankers do not hesitate to take bribes.

On the one hand, nationalised banks face stiff completion from private banks. It is ironical that instead of concentrating on the recovery of bad loans and providing courteous and efficient services, the corrupt officials are engaged in nefarious activities. In the present scenario, it would be the foremost task of North Block to consider the PJ Nayak Committee report expeditiously. The discretionary powers of CMDs of PSBs also needs to be restricted.

The arrested CMD needs to be punished severely so that other such corrupt bankers are warned.

Jayant Mukherjee

Kolkata

Many board of director appointments are made only because of the individual’s close association with a political leader. The people of this country own these PSU banks and the political leaders exploit them by appointing their loyalists. Why should the Government own these banks? The RBI should take a closer look at these appointments and ratify them. We also need more accountability from bank employees in the form of higher credit disposal to SMEs and MSMEs. A big overhaul is needed in the way we own and run our PSU banks.

CR Arun

Email

Unbreakable bond

In a multi-religious society, inter-religious relationships are inevitable. Sometimes they blossom into friendship, love and marriage. Boys and girls of a particular religious community cannot be barred or forced to have no truck with girls and boys of another religious community. It is impractical to think they can be prevented from bonding with someone to whom they have taken a liking.

The conveniently forgotten fact that Hindu boys marry Muslim girls and convert them to their religion and Hindu girls marry Muslim boys and convert them to their religion and married inter-religious couples follow their respective pre-marital religion after marriage in the vast melting pot of Indian society should calm the nerves of ‘nationalists’ currently up in arms. To say that Muslim boys troll the streets for vulnerable Hindu girls with the intention of trapping them in love and converting them to Islam is to reinforce a stereotype.

G David Milton

Kanyakumari

Laudable agri policy

It is heartening to note that the Tamil Nadu government will be distributing Amma seeds at nominal price to farmers through service centres. The policy can create a marketable surplus in the agricultural sector and also good income for farmers. This in turn will enhance the demand for goods and services in the secondary and tertiary sectors paving the way for the all-round growth of the State’s economy.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Ranipet, Tamil Nadu

Certain uncertainty

In the article “Better safe than sorry” (August 8), SS Tarapore mentions that Raghuram Rajan seems alert to uncertainties on account of growth, inflation and capital flows. Global and domestic uncertainties play a dominant role in the cautiousness shown while forming the third bi-monthly monetary policy. Portfolio flows in the emerging market economies have risen sharply, in the light of modest pick-up in activity in the major industrial countries. Also, assurance of monetary policy supports continue. Emerging market economies are vulnerable to outflow of capital from them. The dictum, “Profits are private and losses are public”, should be kept in mind by the authorities while formulating policies, especially with regard to private banks.

TV Jayaprakash

Palakkad, Kerala

Plainly, vendetta

It is natural that the dismissal of Mizoram governor Kamla Beniwal has drawn flak from the Opposition. When Beniwal was Gujarat governor, it was not have smooth sailing with the then chief minister Narendra Modi. Congress and its alliance partners have accused the NDA government of political vendetta.

In the 1980 Lok Sabha election, when the Congress came back to power, it dismissed four governors, namely, Kidar Nathi Sahni (Goa), Kailashpathi Mishra (Gujarat), Babu Paramanand (Haryana) and Vishnu Kant Shastri (UP). Article 156 of the Constitution does not lay down the grounds on which a governor can be removed by the President. It is an assumption that the President can remove the Governor in case of bribery, corruption, treason and the like or conduct unbecoming of the Constitution. The said four governors were not guilty of any of these. The lame excuse was that they had had a long-time association with the RSS. The RSS was not a banned organisation at any point of time. Just because those governors were appointed by the previous non-Congress government, they were dismissed. Now it is ridiculous for the Congress and its alliance partners to say that the Government has dismissed Beniwal out of political vendetta.

KV Seetharamaiah

Hassan, Karnataka

Sorry about that

The wrong grid accompanied the clues of CW 142 on Friday, August 8. CW 142 will appear again, with the correct grid and corresponding clues on Monday, August 11.