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The merger between Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank is very much the need of the hour. The move is logical and proactive in all senses. Needless to say, the major concern as of now in the Indian banking Industry is nothing but the alarming levels of non-performing assets or bad loans.
This merger will help minimise the unhealthy competition in the sector, along with costs and non-performing assets.
Big banks, those of the size of the State Bank of India, are good for a better economy. Therefore, more and more such mergers should take place, which will automatically enhance the growth trajectory.
Ravindranath Shetty
Mangalore
Work for clean
This is with reference to the reports on the Swachh Bharat Mission. It is startling to know that “India has the highest number of people practicing open defecation”. I think this has a lot to do with our work culture. Ideally, work involves steps such as planning, starting, executing, completing, testing, cleaning and reporting. We follow all the steps but miss out the last three.
We are always in a hurry to finish the work, not bothering about what happens thereafter. This attitude percolates to self-appeasement, neglecting the social expectations and mutual requirements in our neighbourhood, city and country. We have to move away from this behaviour to a more humane approach to each other.
V Ramaswamy
A good move
The RBI’s move to force banks to take away the penalty they impose on customers who fail to keep a minimum balance in their accounts can benefit the common man and the retail economy. The move will help increase the disposable income of people.
Ideally, there shouldn’t be any penalty on such instances as the income of the common man is very unstable. Yes, this will cause some uneasiness to banks, but their losses can be offset by increasing the minimum balance level for high-income groups.
Vikram Sundaramurthy
Chennai
Pound foolish
This is with reference to the article, ‘When plantations become tourist hotspots’ by Tharian George (November 21). I wish to add that the real threat to Kerala’s plantation industry — or for that matter all agriculture in the State — is the land mafia, which is interested in merely making the maximum profit in the shortest possible time, denying socio-economic and environmental considerations.
I have observed, to my utter dismay, that almost a similar situation has developed in south Kerala’s Kuttanad region, which is called the “rice bowl” of Kerala, where in the garb of promoting tourism, the land mafia has appropriated, with the political patronage of the government, the wetlands, constructing a string of resorts on the river coast line threatening the very ecology and fragility of the unique wetlands.
That this unique expanse of undersea wetlands, claimant to the unique Ramsar legacy, reclaimed by the visionary rice growers of the area of the bygone era, has been forgotten and the modern day “Kuttanad Package”, peddled by the government with the blessing of people who have no true scientific knowledge of the soil, allowing a string of concrete slabs to be laid along the river course for miles together is a testimony of how the “penny wise pound foolish” mindset can wreak havoc on Kerala’s real agrarian culture.
KP Prabhakaran Nair
A blot on the CBI
The Supreme Court’s missive to CBI chief Ranjit Sinha asking him to keep off the 2G case probe, after evidence against him of interfering in the investigation surfaced, is well-timed and important. The CBI director has been under a cloud ever since the emergence of a visitor’s diary at his residence in Delhi depicting his alleged hobnobbing with the 2G accused.
Besides, the charges of trying to give a clean chit to some of the accused have also hit his credibility. The incident is the first in the history of the CBI and is a blot on its image.
NJ Ravi Chander
Bangalore
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