Below the line

When BS Yeddyurappa resigned as Karnataka Chief Minister on Saturday as it became clear that he would not clear the floor test in the Karnataka Assembly, he gave himself a chance to better his own dubious record of surviving for the shortest possible time in the saddle. Yeddyurappa who earlier held the record of lasting only seven days in the Chief Minister’s seat in 2007, now managed only two days in the CM’s chair. It is rather ironical that on both the occasions the person who put spanner in the works for Yeddyurappa was Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy. While he and Kumaraswamy were allies in 2007 but parted ways on differences over the ministries to be shared, in 2018, they were in opposite camps and were both aspiring CMs. Yeddyurappa can still take heart in the fact that he had been in CM’s chair thrice, a yet another record for Karnataka.

Now that Bhushan Steel’s insolvency resolution matter is a done deal, big banks are heaving a sigh of relief. Given the huge NPA mess, there is now a silver lining in the form of “some write back” of provisions already made by them against this account, bolstering their first quarter bottomline. State Bank of India had the highest exposure to Bhushan Steel at ₹12,872 crore, followed by PNB at ₹4,904 crore and ICICI Bank at ₹2,449 crore. Of course, the sore point is the banks are taking 37 per cent haircut on their overall exposure of ₹56,079 crore. Since the banks had already provided at least 40 per cent in their books, the latest development is only music for their ears. Better late than never, quipped a banker.

Ever since Finance Minister Piyush Goyal promised the 11 banks under PCA that the Centre would give them a helping hand, the hacks in the Capital have gone into a tizzy wondering about the form of government support. With the Finance Minister holding multiple round of meetings with these bank heads, help is round the corner for them to come out of PCA net, say banking industry insiders. No wonder the chief executives of these 11 banks spent an entire day in the Capital brainstorming possible measures.

BBB action?

All eyes are now on the newly minted Banks Board Bureau (BBB) to get on with the task of selection of chief executives in public sector banks. By one estimate, there are 11 vacancies (in various PSBs) to fill and 19 candidates are in the fray. Buzz in the corridors of power is that the interviews will start next month.

India has miles to go on the manufacturing front before it can command a place at the global high table. Of course, India is also playing catch up with China. One interesting metric that an industry honcho mentioned this past week to show the increasing effort from India was the number of ‘robots’ imported by India. By one estimate, India imported 3,000 ‘robots’, mostly for industrial use, in 2017. This is great given that the government hands out no subsidy to buy ‘robots’. However, here comes the challenging point — China had in 2017 imported 90,000 robots, mostly for industrial use.

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary year of bank nationalisation. Will it herald the beginning of the end for government control of public sector banks? Absolutely not, said a banking industry veteran, pointing to the 2019 general elections.

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