This refers to ‘Investment booster’ (June 24). The final RBI guidelines on project loans reducing standard provisioning to just 1 per cent for infrastructure and residential projects and further to 0.4 per cent upon project commencement are steps in the right direction. However, these measures only partially address the core issues faced by commercial banks in extending long-term project finance.

Project loans are inherently complex, with multiple uncertainties across the life-cycle. Given that project finance demands advanced risk assessment and structuring skills, banks must focus on building internal capabilities. This includes recruiting professionals with domain expertise and offering competitive compensation structures to attract and retain talent. Only then can banks afford to prioritise project lending over relatively safer working capital or retail loans.

Srinivasan Velamur

Chennai

Disruption of Hormuz

This refers to ‘Disruption of Hormuz may offer opportunity for India’s refiners’ (June 24). The Israel-Iran war is taking several twists and turns, placing the countries depending on oil imports in a problematic situation. The closure of Hormuz sea route will badly affect many countries. Though India has built a large number of large underground oil reserve storage facilities, these would cater to the oil demands of the country only for a few weeks. If the conflict continues, the oil supply chain would definitely get hit.

RV Baskaran

Chennai

Inclusive health insurance

The article ‘Health insurance must be inclusive’ (June 24) has not come a day too early. The government should mandate standardised insurance products across insurers, ensure reasonable and rational pricing aimed at affordability, and stipulate sales and after-sales practices to ensure timely honouring of commitments to foster reliability. All campaigning for ‘insurance for all’ would result in suboptimal outcome with the existing portfolio of products and level of service standards both in health and life insurance alike.

Jose Abraham

Vaikom, Kerala

Medical expenses

The rise in life expectancy means there are more older people with age related illness, needing more medical attention. The civic and state hospitals are in no position to handle the number of patients and more turn to private hospitals for treatment. The treatment in private hospitals is prohibitively expensive and most cannot afford it. Instead of trying to make health insurance accessible to everybody, the government’s 18 per cent service tax has made it more expensive.

Anthony Henriques

Mumbai

Published on June 24, 2025