Legal wrangle

Apropos ‘Big Win: Canadian court allows Devas to seize AAI assets in Montreal (January 4)’, it is a matter of great concern that the Canadian Court has granted Devas Multimedia the right to seize the assets belonging to Airports Authority of India (AAI) in enforcing the $111 million award earlier given by UN Commission on International Trade Law.

It is a worrying fact that the target was to seize the assets of Indian PSUs worldwide by treating them to be the proxies for the Indian State. It is hoped that the Indian legal team would challenge the Canadian rulings legally.

RV Baskaran

Chennai

Banking sector woes

Systemic weaknesses in PSU banks are getting exposed too frequently. Banking needs informed discretion and application of independent judgment in lending. This would call for integrity, both at the systemic and managerial levels. Even a pedigreed CEO cannot be expected to single handedly counter the shortfalls in a strait jacketed public sector banking system.

Changes in the regulatory framework and technology, rising customer expectations, and shift in the employee demography have emerged as key drivers for the PSU banks.

They must gear up to meet demands from expanding economy, optimise resources, increase their presence across the value chain, renew focus on R&D and innovation, create a better performance culture and service customer demands effectively.

Above all, CEOs must be given a free hand. If these things are ensured, there is little reason why PSU banks cannot private sector banks.

R Narayanan

Navi Mumbai

Politicians beware

Apropos ‘Kejriwal tests positive for Covid’ ( January 4), it was highly worrisome to learn that the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has tested positive for Covid. This must ring the alarm bells amongst the political fraternity more so when the top leaders of various political parties are currently engaged in ‘wooing’ voters in the five poll bound States.

It may be recalled that Kejriwal had recently gone on a whirlwind tour of Punjab to woo voters.

He also visited Chandigarh to exhort his party’s new elected Municipal Councillors to remain loyal to the party.

Mind you, all 14 of them have reportedly been brought to Delhi to prevent any possible ‘horse-trading’ prior to the election of the city Mayor, scheduled for January 8.

Incidentally, Delhi BJP MP Manoj Tiwari has also tested positive and he had also gone to Chandigarh to woo the Uttranchali voters based in Chandigarh.

But that hardly made a difference as BJP could win only 12 seats as against 22 seats it had won last year.

Vinayak G

New Delhi

Boosting MSMEs

This is with reference to the ‘MSME — Engine of Growth for New India’. The MSME sector is labour intensive . If India has to solve the problem of unemployment, then the promotion of MSME sector is the only way out.

If we analyse agriculture’s contribution to the GDP, and the number of people involved in it, we could figure out disguised unemployment in that sector.

The services sector which is doing very well, cannot support the low skilled and unskilled workforce.

In these circumstances, the MSME sector will not only create jobs but also help in expanding the export potential of the country. The recent government initiatives in the form of PLI scheme to changing definition of MSMEs is a step in the right direction.

What is further required is the continuous flow of credit to this sector. Staff accountability aspect in banks needs to be taken care of so that banks are not hesitant to extend credit to this sector.

Digital application for loans will help in monitoring as to why so many unsecured small loans are getting rejected by the banks.

Mushfique Imran Khan

Kolkata

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