They Will Decide

People who do not have orientation towards any particular political party or alliance or ideology and whose only concern is growth of the country and welfare of the people are the majority. They always prefer to go by the merits of issues and not on other considerations. They cannot be influenced by political gimmicks. They know how to judge governance. They are a decisive force deciding the fortunes of the country. Being apolitical in their outlook and having a balanced perspective, they always long for a stable government at the centre led by a visionary leader of stature and proven sincerity and having the ability to lead the nation and instil confidence in the people, without going by any political considerations. They are the true guardians of democracy. They will decide on the country's fortunes and destiny in the coming election as well as future elections.

Turbulence in the Banking Sector

With more and more skeletons falling out of Indian banking sector scams cupboard, bank customers are on the edge of the seat with respect to the security of their investments with banks. Detection of a series of frauds from PNB-Nirav scam hitting a few other banks as well to UCO Bank loan fraud to Oriental Bank of Commerce loan fraud and to ICICI Bank-Videocon loan controversy has built up thick dark clouds of uncertainty in the banking horizon. The banking sector is already bruised by the havoc contributed by Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi and the likes. The already grave situation has been further worsened by the aggravating bad debts position with NPAs showing no worthwhile signs of decline.

The involvement / alleged involvement of none other than the bank’s chieftain and other senior executives and officers in some of these gross irregularities and the inability of the banking regulator in curbing such incidents and coming out with some more robust surveillance mechanisms and in arresting the menace of loan delinquencies are as baffling as they are disappointing.

What the nation anxiously looks forward to at this juncture are the measures emanating from the central bank to cure the banking sector of the serious ailments it is suffering from and the punishment meted out to the culprits including the bank officials.

കേഴുക ഭാരതമേ

മനുഷ്യനെ മറ്റു ജീവികളിൽ നിന്നും വിഭിന്നമാക്കുന്നത് മനസാക്ഷി, വിവേകം, വിവേചന ബുദ്ധി എന്നിവയൊക്കെയാണെന്നാണല്ലോ പൊതുവെയുള്ള വിശ്വാസം. പക്ഷെ ഈ വിശ്വാസം അപ്പാടെ തെറ്റാണെന്നാണ് ഭാരതത്തിൽ ഇപ്പോൾ നടന്നുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന സംഭവങ്ങൾ അടിവരയിട്ടു പറയുന്നത്. സാംസ്കാരികമായ അധ:പതനത്തിന്റെ ഉത്തുംഗ ശൃംഗത്തിൽ മനുഷ്യൻ എത്തിച്ചേർന്നിരിക്കുന്നു. ദൃഷ്‌ടാന്തങ്ങൾ എണ്ണമറ്റവയായതു കൊണ്ട് ഇവിടെ അവ നിരത്തുന്നത് അതിസാഹസമായിരിക്കും.

നിഷ്കളങ്കതയുടെ പര്യായമായ ഒരു കൊച്ചുകുട്ടിക്കു ജമ്മു കാശ്മീരിൽ നേരിട്ട അനുഭവം ഭാരതത്തിനെന്നല്ല ലോകത്തിനാകെ അപമാനമാണ്.  ഇതൊന്നും അത്ര കാര്യമാക്കേണ്ടതില്ല, അല്ലെങ്കിൽ ഇവയൊന്നും  അസാധാരണമായ കാര്യങ്ങളല്ല  എന്ന നിലപാടെടുക്കുന്നവർ കൂടി വരുന്നത് ഭയാനകമായ ഒരു കാര്യമാണ്. ഈ സമീപനം   ഇതിനൊക്കെ മൗനാനുവാദം നൽകുന്നതിന് തുല്യവും തികച്ചും ആപൽക്കരവുമാണ്. 

മനസാക്ഷി ലവലേശമില്ലാത്ത, അതിരുകളില്ലാത്ത, കണ്ണിൽ ചോരയില്ലാത്ത, മൃഗങ്ങളെപ്പോലും കരയിപ്പിക്കുന്ന ക്രൂരതയുടെയും, ചതിയുടെയും വഞ്ചനയുടെയും  ദയാരാഹിത്യത്തിന്റെയും പര്യായമായി മനുഷ്യത്വം എന്ന പദം  മാറിയോ അതോ മനുഷ്യത്വം എന്നത് നിരർത്ഥകമായ ഒരു പദമായി മാറിയോ എന്നു മാത്രമേ സംശയമുള്ളൂ.

ഇതിന്റെയെല്ലാം ഉത്തരവാദിത്വം രാഷ്ട്രീയത്തിന്റെയും മതത്തിന്റെയും തലയിൽ കെട്ടിവച്ചിട്ടു മാറിനിന്നു ചിരിക്കുന്ന കശ്മലന്മാരെ നിലയ്ക്കുനിർത്താൻ കെല്പില്ലാതെ നിയമവ്യവസ്ഥ കേഴുന്നു. ഈശ്വരസന്നിധിയിൽ വച്ചു പോലും ക്രൂര കൃത്യങ്ങൾ  നടത്തുന്ന നരാധമന്മാർ രക്ഷപ്പെടുന്നു. അവരെ സംരക്ഷിക്കാൻ നിരവധി കശ്മലന്മാരൊത്തുകൂടുന്നു.

എല്ലാത്തിനും ഉപരിയായി നാം കരുതിയിരുന്ന മനസാക്ഷി മനുഷ്യകുലത്തോട് വിടപറഞ്ഞു കഴിഞ്ഞിരിക്കുന്നു. മനുഷ്യൻ എന്ന ജീവി പരിണാമത്തിലൂടെ മറ്റൊരു ജീവിയായി മാറിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയാണോ എന്ന സംശയവും ബാക്കി നിൽക്കുന്നു. ഡാർവിന്റെ പരിണാമസിദ്ധാന്തം അങ്ങനെയൊരു സാധ്യത  നിഷേധിക്കുന്നില്ലല്ലോ.  കേഴുക ഭാരതമേ.

An Enormous Task

Humanity is at the cross roads. The way ahead is rather confusing and confronting. Giant leaps in technology, upsurge in material comforts, distortion in priorities, erosion of values, perverted ethics, deteriorations in human relations and supremacy of money power over everything else are just a few of the contributory factors.

Degeneration of human character is at the core of the issue. Here, character encompasses many things. It is the sum total of one’s outlook, orientation, priorities, approach, values, level of tolerance, equanimity, treatment of fellow beings, beliefs and the like. The only source of solace and hope for humanity is people with character, people with a kind heart and tolerance, people who hold on to ethics and values, who do not consider money power to be everything else. Though this may perhaps sound to be an anachronistic viewpoint to some, it is an indisputable and plain fact.

Talking about India, the solution to the problem lies in nothing but our education system. Unless education starts giving a strong impetus on inculcating values among the youth, in equipping them to understand things in the correct perspective, the nation has little to hope. A total revamping of the education system is what the country needs. The curricula of studies should be drastically re-structured.  Ethics and values should get the same place and importance in the curriculum as science, technology, economics, history or political science from the elementary school level itself. Ethics and values should become a paramount criterion in assessing an individual’s personality as well as suitability for any vocation.

The constitution of a nine-member panel headed by the renowned space scientist K Kasturirangan with experts and educationists from wide-ranging backgrounds as the panel members, by the HRD Ministry, Government of India a few months back to frame a new National Education Policy (NEP), is a step in the right direction. Without any bias, it can be said that this is one of the most important initiatives taken by the present Government at the centre, which however has not received the required media highlighting. Needless to mention that the task of this committee is enormous and phenomenal, given the gravity and complexity of the matter and inasmuch as it is expected to trigger a cultural transformation and is a question of rebuilding the character of the future Indians, of the future India. That says it.

Rays of Hope

In a democracy like India, the citizens pin much hopes on the country’s legal system, because when power corrupts the leaders, it is only the legal system and the judiciary which can assume the saviour’s role. For the legal system and judiciary to command respect, it should be able to send strong signals that it is capable of safeguarding the interests of the people, when democratic system is abused by leaders. The efficiency of the legal system and judiciary is judged more on this capability than on any other factor. It is widely accepted that delivery of justice along with a strong message that justice has actually been delivered is one of the core elements of jurisprudence.

The maxims enshrined in the Constitution of India that all are equal before law and that no one should be discriminated against on any grounds are undoubtedly among the most important doctrines and perhaps the basic spirit of the nation’s paramount statute book. The series of verdicts of the Special CBI Court, Ranchi in connection with the fodder scam cases are to be seen from this perspective. The verdicts serve to reinforce the faith and trust of the people of India in the country’s legal system and judiciary.

Financial Discipline

The banks in India, particularly many of the nationalized banks are hit by a multitude of ailments like ever mounting bad debts (known as NPAs), bottlenecks in fresh capital infusion, tardy credit growth, fast declining profitability bordering on or already wriggling in losses. The main causative factor for the mess is nothing but bad debts. It is common knowledge that the lion’s share of bad debts is the contribution of big corporate houses, resultant of willful defaults, and frauds committed by the borrowers with the connivance of some intermediate beneficiaries.

The large scale default of big loans by business houses and so called high profile persons and ‘tycoons’ (an aberration which can be called ‘tycoonism’) and the limitations or the inability of the legal system in recovering the amount from the defaulters have sent a wave of delinquency across the banking and financial sector prompting even earlier regularly repaying borrowers to default on their repayments, thereby aggravating the situation on the bad debts front. This tendency has to be arrested at all cost for the survival of banks. For this, the Government should act in such a manner as to send strong messages that loan defaulters will not be left scot free and that no borrower would get a preferential treatment on account of any consideration, whatsoever.

The basic element of financial discipline is repayment disciple. This applies equally to individuals and firms. Once repayment discipline of a community / nation is lost, the resultant perils would be disastrous. Let this does not happen in India. Let us hope the State would take pro-active steps.

Electoral Prudence

We have been hearing a few stock rhetorics from our political parties every time when a general election to the parliament is round the corner. With 2019 general elections not far from us, we have started to hear the same thing again now. The magniloquence which has started catching up includes the usual stock words or phrases like ‘Grand Alliance’, ‘Third Front’ (no pun intended), ‘common minimum programme’, ‘like-minded parties’, ‘reinstatement of democracy’, and so on and so forth. A hotchpotch of about two dozen political outfits with conflicting and mutually antagonistic interests (not ideologies) is now thinking of coming together and fighting the elections.

We have a few previous instances where we have already seen that after somehow managing to manoeuvre a majority through an alliance of convenience, such groups of political outfits including some misfits are not able to run a government even for a little more than half of its full term. No naive person would ever believe that such a group will be able to provide a stable government with a concrete plan and consensus policies. Every right thinking citizen in the country would earnestly believe and hope that only a party or alliance which can provide a stable government lasting its full term would be suitable for India. By handing over power to a hotchpotch alliance, the electorate is only knowingly becoming party to the premature death of a government and inviting an uncalled for mid-term election which is a highly expensive proposition. This is a matter which the electorate should seriously ponder.

As responsible voters we should not miss out on the larger picture - the politics of nation building. Coming together is good; but ideas and ideologies have to converge to a common ground, i.e. building a great nation, a super power that is India. Nation building should be kept above everything else. The electorate has a great responsibility in building up the nation. They are not gaining anything out of petty politics. They should learn from their past mistakes.

The electorate should definitely ponder over this ignoring all political considerations. There begins the building up of a nation which brings pride for all Indians irrespective of politics.

Before Long

Banks are the place where the country’s scarce economic resources which include the hard earned, honestly earned money of common man are parked on the strength of the perceived safety and security of the banking edifice. What has been happening in the country for the last two decades is that a small group of individuals, who are dignified looters, robbers and thieves in the guise of business tycoons are eating away the scarce economic resources parked in banks by availing colossal amounts of loans, taking to a flamboyant life, building up an empire, willfully defaulting the loan repayment and then playing the disappearing game. About 80% of the bad loans of Indian banks are the contribution of this small minority who are only a few thousands in number. And this is all being done with the connivance of certain other greedy, ruthless sections of the society, who, again, are only a minority. About the looting of national wealth by the political community, the less said, the better.

Thus what we have been witnessing for a quite long period is nothing but a massive exploitation of the country’s wealth by a minority through the above modus operandi. This is the basic reason for the social and economic imbalances witnessed.  And, the hazards faced by the economy by the cold-blooded acts of the above minority are made good by the State by passing on the burden to the common man through higher taxation and consistently pushing up the cost of living, without any worthwhile increase in income.

This gross distortion in the economy is one of the most important things to be set right for setting up an egalitarian and truly democratic society. This has to happen before long. It is bound to happen before long.

The Fugitive Businessmen

The Rs.12600 crore PNB scam allegedly committed by the fugitive billionaire jeweler Nirav and his associates with the alleged connivance of bank officials, auditors etc. is being subjected to a multi agency investigation with SFIO, ED and CBI engrossed in the investigation. In the case of the elusive business ‘tycoon’ Vijay Mallya, the British courts, ED and CBI are occupied with his financial crimes. In all probability, bringing the real culprits to justice would take a very long time, going by the complexity of the financial frauds and the ‘profile’ and connections of the accused.

In this context, one is reminded of the case of Harshad Mehta and his associates who siphoned off whopping funds from inter-bank transactions and bought shares heavily at a premium across many segments, triggering an astronomical rise in the BSE Sensex in 1992. When the scheme was exposed, banks started demanding their money back, causing the collapse. He was later charged with 72 criminal offences, and more than 600 civil action suits were filed against him. Unlike Vijay Mallya and Nirav,  Harshad Mehta did not take to fleeing the country. Still the litigation took about one decade before the Supreme Court confirmed Bombay High Court’s judgement convicting Mehta and sentencing him to five years rigorous imprisonment. However, by that time Mehta had attained ‘salvation’ in 2001, though his death happened while in criminal custody.

എന്താണ് ആധുനികത?

ഇന്ന് ചുറ്റും നടക്കുന്ന പല സംഭവങ്ങളും കാണുമ്പോൾ ആർക്കും സ്വാഭാവികമായി തോന്നാവുന്ന ഒരു കാര്യമുണ്ട് - പുരാതന മനുഷ്യനും ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യനും തമ്മിൽ എന്താണ് വ്യത്യാസം?

ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യൻ വിദ്യാഭ്യാസപരമായും സാംസ്കാരികമായും  വളരെ മുന്നിലാണെന്ന് സ്വയം അവകാശപ്പെടുന്നുണ്ട്. പക്ഷെ കൊല്ലും കൊലയും നടത്തുന്ന കാര്യത്തിൽ, ക്രൂരതയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ, മനുഷ്യത്വമില്ലായ്മയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ പുരാതന മനുഷ്യനേക്കാൾ എത്രയോ മുന്നിലെത്തി നിൽക്കുന്നു ഇന്നത്തെ ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യൻ. അതെ സമയം  ധാർമികയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ, സഹജീവി സ്നേഹത്തിന്റെ കാര്യത്തിൽ, ദീനാനുകമ്പയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ, സഹിഷ്ണുതയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ , സമഭാവനയുടെ കാര്യത്തിൽ  ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യൻ എത്ര മാത്രം പിന്നിലേക്കു പോയിരിക്കുന്നു.

അങ്ങനെ വരുമ്പോൾ, സാംസ്കാരികമായി പുരാതനമനുഷ്യൻ എത്രയോ മുമ്പിലായിരുന്നു എന്ന് കാണാം. അപ്പോൾ എന്താണ് ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യന്റെ ഈ സ്വയം വിലയിരുത്തലിന്റെ മാനദണ്ഡം? വിദ്യാഭ്യാസം കൊണ്ട് ആധുനിക മനുഷ്യൻ എന്ത് നേടി?

The Intermediary Beneficiaries

The whole nation is discussing the unending reports coming out day in and day out on the spine-chilling financial frauds perpetrated by a band of so-called ‘business magnates’. There is absolutely no doubt that the ultimate beneficiaries of all these frauds are a few heinous racketeers in the guise of business tycoons. But no one is so naive as to believe that these ruthless criminals have committed all the irregularities on their own without the support or involvement or connivance or knowledge or silent consent of some other unsocial elements. Strong are the possibilities of the involvement of unholy middlemen in the guise of political bigwigs, brokers etc. apart from the already established role of bank officials of various cadres and professionals like auditors.

The nation has a legitimate right to know who the intermediary beneficiaries of the multi-crore scams are, as it is the tax payers’ money which is swindled by the law-breakers and it is again the tax-payers’ money which will be used also to clear up the consequent financial mess through several discreet and uncanny strategies. The full details of all the intermediary beneficiaries quantifying the amounts of gratification should be published irrespective of how ‘big’ or powerful or influential they are. This might be possible only after an exhaustive investigation using all arms of the country’s legal machinery. But there will be no justification for prolonging the investigation, which should be completed in a time bound manner.

For a Prosperous India

This is in the light of the Oxfam survey report which was released very recently. The liberalization policies India has been following for the last about two-and-a-half decades have certainly increased the wealth generation in the country. However, as India’s economy grew rapidly, the inequality between the richest and the poorest rose. There is no doubt that lives of people have changed for better because of liberalisation but the promise of poverty eradication still remains to be fulfilled. The gains have thrown new concerns of exclusion which needs to be addressed. The rise and rise of a small pool of India’s super rich population has worsened this divide, the ultra-wealthy alone, comprising 1% of the country’s population. In the last few decades, the rich in India have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer. According to Oxfam survey report, the richest 1% cornered 73% of wealth generated in India in 2017 and the rich-poor divide is widening. It is a pity that 67 crore Indians comprising the population’s poorest half saw their wealth rise by just 1% in the last year.

The Oxfam report underlines the imperative necessity of the Government revisiting the liberalization philosophy by re-orienting the focus towards more equitable distribution of wealth in the society, having prosperity for all in place of prosperity for only a fortunate few, encouragement of labour-intensive sectors that will create more jobs, more social welfare and protection measures, rationalization and streamlining of various of pension schemes, extending pension benefits to the deprived sections,  investing in agriculture, bringing more discipline in the financial sector, mercilessly dealing with cornering of wealth through illegal and unlawful means, incentivising honest sections of tax payers etc.

Cultural Transformation

The only source of solace and hope for humanity is people with kindness and tolerance, people who hold on to ethics and values. Sadly their tribe is on the way to extinction due to the predominance of lopsided values and perverted ethics.

Unless education starts giving a strong impetus on inculcating values among the youth, humanity has little to hope. Ethics and values should get the same place and importance in the curriculum as science, technology, economics, history etc. from the elementary school level itself. Ethics and values should become a paramount criterion in assessing an individual’s personality as well as suitability for any vocation.  The country should have a National Education Policy revamping the existing obnoxious education pattern. This will trigger a cultural transformation and results would start manifesting in a span of about twenty years.

നിശ്ചയം

കലികാലമേ എന്നു നീ പോയ് മറയും
കഥയിതെന്നൊന്നു മാറിവരും
ഇനിയേതു കാലം വന്നണയും
ഇവിടത്തെ ഇരുളെന്നു മാഞ്ഞു പോകും

മൂല്യങ്ങൾക്കൊന്നും മൂല്യമില്ലാതായി
മുഖംമൂടിയണിഞ്ഞവരേറെയായി
ബുദ്ധിതന്നളവുകോൽ കൗശലമായി
ബന്ധങ്ങൾ മുഴുവനും നിർബ്ബലമായി

സത്യവും ധർമവും സ്നേഹവുമെല്ലാം
അർത്ഥമില്ലാത്ത പദങ്ങളായ് മാറി
അർത്ഥമതൊന്നിനേ  അർത്ഥമുള്ളൂ
അല്ലാത്തതെല്ലാം മിഥ്യയായ് മാറി

എന്തെന്തു ഹീനമാം മാർഗ്ഗത്തിലൂടെയും
എന്തും നേടണമതൊന്നെ നിൻ ലക്‌ഷ്യം
എന്താണു നീയിതറിയാതെ പോകുന്നു
എന്താണു ലോകനീതിതൻ പൊരുളെന്ന്‌

കൗശലക്കാരേ കൊടും വഞ്ചകന്മാരേ
മാപ്പില്ല മാപ്പില്ല നിങ്ങൾക്കൊരിക്കലും
നരകത്തേക്കാളുമധമാം ദുർഘടം 
നിങ്ങൾക്കു കാലമൊരുക്കിടും നിശ്ചയം

(എൻ.വി.ജി.)

Credibility of Indian Banks

The fact that though the genesis of the PNB fraud dates back to 2011, it surfaced only after a long span of eight years, is a strong indicator of the ineffectiveness of the plethora of surveillance and due diligence mechanisms prevalent in the bank. During this period, the bank was subjected to several audits including those conducted by external agencies, statutory auditors, bank’s in-house inspection officials and RBI. Further, the accredited rating agency CRISL had allotted AAA and AA ratings on PNB’s debt instruments. All these processes are supposed to or meant to objectively assess the financial health of a bank and are very costly exercises. Still they did not serve the purpose for which they are instituted. All these things cast serious suspicions in the minds of people. When a scam of such a magnitude remains under the carpet for such a long time, it takes a heavy toll on the bank. Massive loan write-offs and provisioning for NPAs have compounded the situation.

The PNB scam has dragged a few other banks also into its whirlpool. The terms ’system failure’ and ‘software deficiency’ are used only as a veil to cover the facts and human negligence and connivance. The greed of all those who are involved in the fiasco motivated them to siphon off public funds, as can be seen from the admission of the booked bank officials that they have accepted bribes to flout rules. The blame has to be put not on the systems or on the software but squarely on the people. It is rightly said that the main ingredient in operational risk is the human risk, which also includes connivance of staff in perpetrating frauds.

The facts behind the PNB scam so far unearthed also indicate that scams of different magnitudes could have occurred in more banks as things stand. If every scam has a ‘gestation period’ like the PNB scam, the banking industry will have to pay a heavy price before long.

It is only in the interests of the country, the economy and the people that all banks are subjected to a rigorous, high level, exhaustive special audit / inspection covering a fairly long period, conducted jointly by RBI and strong audit houses. The modus operandi of the PNB scam could facilitate framing of rigorous guidelines and checklists for such an audit/inspection. This is imperative for reinforcing the credibility of Indian banks. The banking industry should be safeguarded at all costs.

സാഷ്ടാംഗ പ്രണാമം

ആഴിയുടെ അഗാധതയും
ആകാശത്തിന്റെ അപാരതയും
സൗരയൂഥത്തിന്റെ വൈവിധ്യവും
കാട്ടരുവിയുടെ തെളിമയും
പിച്ചിപ്പൂവിന്റെ നൈർമല്യവും
മുല്ലപ്പൂവിന്റെ സുഗന്ധവും
തുമ്പപ്പൂവിന്റെ എളിമയും
മഞ്ഞിന്റെ കുളിർമയും
മധുവിന്റെ മാധുര്യവും
ഇളനീരിന്റെ രുചിയും
ഇളംകാറ്റിന്റെ തഴുകലും
എല്ലാം ഒത്തുചേർന്ന
ഒന്ന് മാത്രമേയുള്ളൂ,
അതാണെന്റെ മലയാള ഭാഷ.
നമിക്കുന്നു സാഷ്ടാംഗം ഞാനീ
സർവാഭരണ വിഭൂഷിതയെ.

Bad Loans

It is learnt that the word ‘technical write-off’ which has been accepted by Indian banking is not used anywhere in the world. We don’t consider ‘technical write-off’ as write-off. Though technical write-off of bad loans is resorted to with the objective of cleansing the balance sheet and not with the objective of altogether giving up the recovery measures, it is a highly non-transparent system and without any uniform policy as admitted even by RBI officials. There’s plenty of room for wrong-doing in the guise of technical write-off. Another aspect is that technical write-off is resorted to more in the case of high ticket loans and very less in the case of small loans and small borrowers are more

There is another side of the picture. As known to all, huge provisioning for NPAs and write-offs have been eating into the vitals of  banks, seriously impacting their profitability, reserves, NOF, CAR etc. And all these are periodically ‘made good’ by the Government through ‘infusion of fresh capital’. Wherefrom does the money come for all this? The answer is : by consistently and irrationally increasing the charges for various banking services, by bringing more and more services under the fees network, by increasing various taxes, by introducing new taxes etc. And who will bear brunt? The answer is : the hapless common man. As of now, every activity inside banks (except breathing by the customers) is charged. And on the other side, many sections of willful defaulters of loan are left scot free. These are all hard core facts.

There should primarily be a fool proof system to subject the technically written off assets to scrutiny jointly by RBI officials and established audit firms. Further, it is high time that RBI started periodically publishing bank-wise data of NPAs along with technically written off NPAs, recovered portion of technically written-off NPAs and also the list of top NPAs.  And, there should be no laxity in resorting to all possible recovery measures against willful defaulters irrespective of their money power or political clout or any factor for that matter.

We find the NPA problem every five or ten years. When the economy is doing well, it will be under the surface and when the economy is not doing well, it will come up. It was there in mid-80s and then it came in 2000s and again in 2008-09 and then in 2016-17, thanks to Mallyas and the like and more and more banks nose-diving into loss. Nevertheless, NPA remains to be a subject more talked about and debated upon rather than acted upon and tackled.

Paradise on Earth

Shy flowers of all hues

Shining with dew drops;

Cool breeze caressing

The leaves to delight;

Birds chirping melodies

That are truly ecstatic;

Oh Munnar, God's abode,

Are you paradise on earth?

PNB Scam

With PNB detecting a whopping Rs.11,400 crore scam through the issue of fraudulent letters of undertaking (LOUs), India has witnessed a massive financial scam after a gap. Coming as it is in a time when Indian banking is riding on the wings of advanced technology and when robust systems are believed to have been put in place in the banking system, the scam has a potential danger inasmuch as it is posing serious questions on the safety of banks. History has taught us that cracks on the credibility of banking system have the potential to strike at the roots of the economy. The country has the right to know how such a scam has been perpetrated and PNB should bring to book the real culprits. There should be no laxity in fixing the staff involvement and staff lapse, if any, in this massive financial fraud.

Time

With no start or end flows a stream

That’s the enigma knows as time.

Many say ‘I don’t have time’

When they are sailing on time.

None knows where it’s coming from;

And where it’s heading to;

And what it will unfold;

And what gifts it has for us;

And what miseries it has for us;

And when it will hurt;

And when it will heal;

And when it will bring joy;

And when it will bring sorrow;

And where it will take us to.

Some think it’s an illusion,

None knows its intention.

And incessantly flows that stream

That’s the enigma known as time.