BELOW the line

Now that the RBI has been magnanimous in allowing more funds to flow from the banking system to NBFCs, all eyes are on the Department of Financial Services (DFS) in the Finance Ministry. Reason: unless there is nudge from the top brass of DFS, the chief executives of public sector banks (PSBs) are unlikely to open their purse strings (bail out) to struggling NBFCs. Looking at the turn of events, a public sector banker said it is no surprise that PSBs are being made the “bailout bakra ” this time too. It was only six months back that PSBs were told by analysts and market watchers as to how the banks were not performing on par with NBFCs in credit growth. Now the story has taken a complete U-turn with many NBFCs likely to land up at the doors of PSBs for bail-out, this banker quipped.

The Centre may have moved fast to supersede the board of beleaguered IL&FS. But what is not coming out in the public domain is the payment dues of the Centre to the debt-laden IL&FS. According to a director of one of the IL&FS subsidiaries, a large part of the blame for the IL&FS mess could be laid at the door of the Centre itself as the government was yet to settle a significant portion of the dues for various projects (roads, irrigation) undertaken by IL&FS for the government. Hopefully, this question on the dues of the Centre to IL&FS will be raised by a Member of Parliament in the upcoming session of Parliament.

Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal was recently in Delhi to sign agreements after bagging 41 contract areas under the first round of Open Acreage Licensing Programme. After the contract singing, when asked about investment, production and timeline for the new projects in Vedanta’s kitty, he said, “The daughters have taken birth right now, why talk about their marriage so soon?” Well, everyone looks for return on investments Mr Agarwal.

Passengers on a Indigo flight from Srinagar to Delhi were left fuming after they were informed that preparations have not been completed for their arrival. The harrowed lot were held up in the aircraft for around 25 minutes as there were inadequate ground personnel to ensure a safe exit of the passengers. The in-aircraft announcement also said that the ground personnel haven’t been able to secure a cantilever rolling ladder (the staircase externally attached to help passenger de-board). Even though the flight landed on time, at around 6:05 pm, the travellers could exit the aircraft only at 6:35 pm.

In the last Cabinet briefing held by Minister of Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh and Minister of Law Ravishankar Prasad, the duo refused to take any questions on the massive farmers’ protest that had rocked the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border earlier this month. Paradoxically, the press conference was being held to declare minimum support prices (MSPs) for farmers on winter crops. Singh was jittery while reading out the Cabinet note and often goofed up MSP rates in rupees with percentages. As a result, the reporters failed to get the right picture on prices. While speaking about pulses, he pronounced ‘masoor’ (red lentils) as 'Mysore,' and Prasad came to his rescue.

Corporates can now forget about obtaining advances/credit facilities from public sector banks (PSBs) on the strength of their brands. Reason: The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has, in a recent report, advised PSBs to discontinue the practice of sanctioning advances/credit facilities on the basis of brand name. The CVC has advised banks that brands don’t form any tangible security for the purpose of recovery. A public sector banker said that PSBs have been under the cosh ever since their big bet on brand valuation of a private airline (that later went down) turned awry. Now that CVC has also put its stamp of disapproval, corporates can bid goodbye to getting credit facilities from PSBs for their brands.

Our Delhi Bureau