Below the line

A little bird tells us that Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was given a dressing down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after that tirade against the Tata group at the CII summit last week. Goyal is understood to have called Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran to explain but the latter did not take his call. The minister then called up Banamali Agarwala, President- Infrastructure, Defence and Aerospace at Tata Sons — the man at the receiving end of Goyal’s outburst at the summit — and apologised to him. We understand that he followed it up with an email to the Chairman. Top industrialists are puzzled over the whole episode especially after Modi complimented the industry and promised them all support.

It is a common practice to welcome guests with a bouquet. After assuming charge recently, the new Karnataka Minister for Energy and Kannada and Culture, V Sunil Kumar, who represents Karkala constituency in the Assembly, made an appeal to the people of his constituency that rather than bouquets, they can gift him a Kannada book, if they want to, when they come to meet him and at functions. Sunil Kumar said he would gift the Kannada books to libraries in his constituency. Following this, Karnataka Chief Minister, Basavaraja Bommai, recently issued instructions banning bouquets, garlands and shawls at official meetings and functions of the State government. He also has suggested books, instead.

Ever since Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her FY22 Budget that two Public Sector Banks (PSBs) will be privatised, chiefs of the four Banks — Bank of Maharashtra, Indian Overseas Bank, Central Bank of India and Bank of India — that are deemed fit for privatisation have had to field questions in this regard from media and analysts in their earnings calls. When the owner (the government) has decided on a course of action, the chiefs of these PSBs have little say in the matter. So, when Matam Venkata Rao, MD & CEO, Central Bank of India, was recently asked the “privatisation” question by an analyst, he handled it deftly, saying: “Sir as far as this privatization is concerned, I am also watching the same TV channels and also reading the same newspapers what you people are reading or watching so more than that I cannot supplement anything (sic).”

The episode involving former SEBI Chairman UK Sinha on the Vedanta board has brought to the fore the need for Independent Directors (IDs) to introspect and reflect on status of their independence in the boardroom. It is now a reality that without institutional shareholders’ support, getting on to the board of a listed company will willy-nilly make them dependent IDs. Time ripe for regulation? It will be interesting to see who among the regulators blinks first!

The statement of traders’ body CAIT in support of Commerce and Industry and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal coming down publicly on Indian corporates, including the Tata group, for not backing policies that protect consumer interest, would not have come as a surprise for many. The body, which has been continuously filing complaints against the alleged “unfair” trade practices of large e-commerce companies, such as Amazon and Flipkart, would hardly miss a chance to highlight its grievance. However, one wonders whether the timing for such an endorsement was right. When the organisers of the event seemed to have made all efforts, assumedly with the approval of the government, to remove the “harsh” comments from the public eye, for CAIT to bring the matter up again may not exactly be astute.

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