Union MoS  for Finance while answering a written reply to a question on “fugitive economic offenders” in RS on Tuesday has detailed that as many as 51 absconders who managed to flee the country have defrauded an amount of Rs17,900 crore. This figure carries weight while understanding the problem of rising Non Performing Assets, of which majority of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) are plagued with. It’s a fact that the PSB family has remained an integral part of the economy and symbol of trust for the common man since the days of bank nationalization in early 70s. But, it’s also an undeniable fact how most of these banks have fallen sick due to various reasons and had continued to exist only because of the bail-out packages delivered through annual budgets. Recently, there has been the biggest overhauling exercise of PSBs so far in the country’s economic history - all to add professionalism for survival and healthy continuance. The idea is now under debate on various platforms and things will become much clearer from their balance sheets, at least two to three years from this post-merger move. Nonetheless, it is widely agreed that if there is no respite from NPAs and if it continues to mount as it had been for decades, this measure or any measure akin to it may ultimately prove to be non-productive. This is perhaps the most vital task at hand now by the economic policy makers and to save the PSBs, it’s important that the people who contributed to their downfall, i.e the big sharks who took loans and conveniently made exit from the country be brought to book and all the money be recovered.
The current economic stagnation is proving to be a nightmare and keeping aside sector-wise troubles, from a bird’s eye view, a dual aspect becomes clear- people are earning less than before and as a result are getting increasingly thrifty which has caused a great slump in consumer demands and the other is dwindling private investments that has resulted in no new industries, making it further harder to contain the rising unemployment scenario. At this backdrop, PSBs could have played more proactive roles had they been more healthier than currently so by doling out more cheap loans that would have kick started the investment cycle and served the micro & small scale sector in particular, undoubtedly the nation’s largest employer.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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