Letters to the editor dated May 19, 2021

Apropos ‘For a good ‘bad bank’ (May 19), an NARCL funded jointly by the government and Indian banks would take away the independence and objectivity of the former in the selection of the assets to be acquired. A privately funded company, on the other hand, would only take over the easily liquidable NPAs, leaving many PSBs still saddled with huge bad loans.

In the circumstances, the proposed setting up of an entity that would take over the stressed assets of banks, by funding them 15 per cent of the value and providing security receipts for the balance, fully guaranteed by the government, seems to be a feasible solution, provided the existing recovery mechanisms like the IBC are made more effective.

However, in the long term, the vexatious NPA mess of Indian banks can be cleaned up only by equipping their managers with superior credit appraisal skills, ring fencing them from governmental interference, especially ‘behest lending’ and infrastructure lending, for which they are ill-equipped, besides having in place adequate safeguards against reckless lending and evergreening of big loans.

Chennai

Many operational details need to be discussed before shaping the bad bank. Timely intervention to relieve banks from the legacy of bad loans is imperative now so that the flow of credit is restored again, as credit growth has been tepid hitherto because of the fear of NPAs.

The National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd (NARCL) should be entirely different when compared to the existing ARCs which have not been effective enough as there are lot of hiccups such as shortage of capital, selective purchase of bad assets and intervention of courts in many cases.

For the NARCL to run successfully, it is important that the legal roadblocks in the recovery of bad loans are cleared. A specific mandate and timeline should be set out in dealing with bad loans.

Bhimavaram, AP

It refers to ‘Tokyo doctors for cancellation of Olympics’ (May 19). The Olympics is the world’s biggest sporting event. And even if the IOC decides to have it closed doors, there will be as many as 10,000 athletes coming from all corners of the planet to participate in it.

And however much the Japanese Olympic committee tries to create a safe environment for all of them, even if one athlete gets Covid, it could lead to chaos all across the Olympic village. And, moreover, the athletes should be in the right frame of mind to perform at the highest level. Nothing is bigger than the health of athletes, coaches and their staff.

Noida

Apropos ‘Hard work can be injurious to health’ (May 19), long hours of work when accompanied by job dissatisfaction aggravate the ill-effects on the health of employees. Unproductive or repetitive work, interpersonal conflict with immediate boss, authoritative style of leadership by superiors and excessive workload are some of factors that lead to dissatisfaction.

When employees put in long hours involuntarily due to reasons of job security, such as during the second wave of Covid-19, the mental stress may become alarming. Also, working from home for long hours is not easy. A job-happy employee will give better results in eight hours than what a tension-laden worker would in 12 hours.

Pune

To enforce an arbitration award in a tax dispute with the Indian government, the UK based multinational firm Cairn Energy had filed a lawsuit in a US court seeking to attach the overseas properties of Air India. No doubt, it has come as a double whammy for the government of India which is struggling to bring the debilitating second wave of Covid-19 under control.

The implications of the present move by Cairn Energy would certainly go beyond affecting the government’s plan to privatise the national air carrier.

Sholavandan, TN

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