Our athletes did us proud

This refers to the Editorial ‘Asian Delight’ (October 12), Indian athletes have done the country proud by breaking the 100-medal barrier at the recent Asian Games in Hangzhou, and making a better all-round performance. India finished in fourth position, improving on its 2018 tally of 70 medals, which included 16 gold.

The medal haul and improving performances may be a sign of the sports environment looking up. Of course the credit goes to Indian sport bodies including the coaches and trainers.

But sports bodies must do all it takes to overtake the 2020 Tokyo Olympics medal tally at Paris

Gregory Fernandes

Mumbai

Stress at work

It refers to the article ‘Mental well being at the workplace’. If 47 per cent of 4,000 surveyed employees felt that work related stress is affecting their mental health , what would be the real number if millions of other employees are also surveyed and it is not to be forgotten that we are talking about only the formal workforce.

So we need more mental health professionals in our country.

If we really want to improve the overall productivity of our workforce, we must give their mental health a priority and provide them much needed counselling and support.

Bal Govind

Noida

Banks’ liquidity worries

With reference to the article ‘Liquidity situation of banks could tighten’ (October 12), with non-financial assets becoming more attractive and several avenues available for investments, savers’ propensity to save in financial assets, particularly in bank deposits is declining.

Similarly, since customised retail loan products at competitive rates are accessible to all, slowing savings propensity for present and future consumption is hitting bank deposits.

This is forcing banks to borrow from the banking regulator and the call money market which is adversely affecting the net interest margins.

So banks need to aggressively mobilise deposits, especially low-cost deposits to ease the tight liquidity position, besides to improve the net interest margins.

This is necessary to sustain lending, credit growth and asset quality or else banks’ robust performance seen in the last fiscal will be hit.

The RBI and the government must enforce more measures for the healthy survival of the banking sector.

VSK Pillai

Changanacherry

This refers to “Liquidity situation for banks could tighten” ( October 12). Though liquidity tightness could be attributed to imposition of I-CRR, there is lack of co-ordination among banks as evidenced by the reluctance on the part of liquidity surplus banks in lending to banks facing deficits. Rather they prefer deploying them in SDF (Standing Deposit Facility) yielding negative returns.

The growing clamour on the part of banks to increase their NIM (Net Interest Margin) which in turn props up their bottom lines is another reason for liquidity crunch.

Rather than lending for infrastructural and working capital purposes, banks choose easy routes by extending credit for personal and other retail loans which contribute very little to the nation building process.

Banks should be wary of getting into SVB type liquidity crunch and should monitor their balance sheets for asset-liability mismatches on a continuous basis.

Srinivasan Velamur

Chennai

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