Customers cannot be taken for a ride by banks.

Such decisions should be circulated to all banks through the Reserve Bank of India so that banks do not indulge in such undesirable practices against the wishes of the depositors.Many customers have no time or patience to take up with their complaints with Consumer Forums is a fact and they suffer because of this. Consumer Forum does a good job and protects the customers but their decisions should be given wide publicity among the customers and public. There should be some arrangement to circulate such decisions of the consumer Forum through the Reserve Bank of India who is their regulator. Bank and its subsidiary should also be penalized by the RBI and IRDA for such malpractices pursued by banks and Insurance Companies.

Time to review the need for continuance of Planning commission.

The assessment is more or less correct. The whole of India is becoming BIMARU because of corruption and absence of ethics, values, honesty and integrity both in thoughts and actions. Greed has overtaken the economy and those who have access to money and power are becoming richer and richer day by day at the cost of marginalizing even the upper middle class.The persons earning Rs 25000 per month feel unsafe and uncertain to carry on with ever increasing cost on housing, food, clothing, school education,health care and other social expenses. In this back ground just think of persons who earn Rs 27 and 33 in rural areas and urban areas. As rightly pointed out by the author time has come to think of winding up of planning commission and reworking economic development with some other model.Change is recommended everywhere for prosperity and why not replace Planning Commission with a new set up and new thinking. Per capita income of this country is totally erroneous as distribution of wealth is never equitable by any stretch of imagination.Erratic taxation policies not only widen the gap between the rich and the poor but also add to inflation in the economy resulting in the erosion of earnings and making life miserable to survive.Corruption has become a way of life for those who provide some sort of service and without giving bribe nothing happens. To get a conveyance title of plot of land or a flat (Katha in local Language) the officials do not know how much to demand and if one resists to pay, for months together one will not get the certificate despite repeated visits to Village offices and requests to officials.This is only a small example.For anything and everything bribe has to be paid first and even then work is not done. The country at this rate will become a Bimaru one as warned by the author.No silver lining is visible as on date.

Dr T.V.Gopalakrishnan

(This is in response to an article Planning commission needs winding up that appeared in Business standard dated 28/7/13)

Meaningless comparison among the RBI Governors since 1990.

The comparison among Governors’ is meaningless as the performance is linked to the political climate and support in the Governance system, sound economic policies and conducive external sector environment. All these are found missing during the last five years when Dr Subbarao took over in the year 2008.The present RBI Governor's period is some thing unique in the history of RBI. He took charge when there was global financial turmoil and he had to ensure that Indian Financial system and the economy escaped unhurt because of the crisis. Subsequently, he had the misfortune of fighting both inflation and growth without the support of the Govt and the fiscal policy measures. Not only he failed to get the support but also had to face the displeasure of the Govt in not yielding to its pressures to dance to its tunes. He had to face the humiliation when the Govt set up the FSDC and made the RBI as any other institution like SEBI and IRDA without having any supremacy which as a Central bank of the Country it is entitled to. Adding insult to injury, the Government started giving directions to banks directly bypassing RBI. This gave the banks an upper hand and they gave the impression that they cared for more the Govt than the RBI. The SBI the biggest commercial bank instead of giving full support to RBI to ensure success of its monetary policies opposed RBI's every move to curry favour from the Government.The banking system failed both RBI and the Govt leading to such a pathetic condition of the economy.The banks tried to undercut both and landed themselves in liquidity crisis bringing down deposits, adding to NPAs and creating unprecedented mismatch between assets and liabilities. SBI chief has been against RBI policies and has been some sort of indirect support to other banks in challenging RBI measures. The result is the Govt suffers, the economy suffers, the banking system suffers and RBI has to tackle everything together. But the Governor will prove to be right in his thinking and actions if the Govt and the banks dare to introspect as to what they have done to RBI during the last three years in particular and realise their follies..Governor can keep his head high for his boldness and the challenges he faced to maintain the Reserve Bank's importance and supremacy without yielding to the pressures of the Govt and without having the normal cooperation and support of the banking system.Subba Rao's era will have some special place in RBI and Indian Economy's history for the challenges he faced both from the Govt and the banks. The economists will reailse the important role played by RBI during the most inactive performance of the Govt when they introspect in leisure. The Comparison should have been on the political leadership the economy had since 1990 to get an appropriate and logical conclusion.

 Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan 

 This comment is in response to a news report Has RBI Governor Subbarao delivered that appeared in Business Standard dated 27/7/13).

Frauds in banks perpetrated by rich

Frauds are perpetrated more by the rich,mighty and powerful people than the poor is not a revelation.Further more frauds are under advances of banks are also not new. Some of the nonperforming assets  of banks are because of frauds, are also known and these happen with the connivance of top management  of banks are all established truths.  But the unfortunate part is that the losses on account of frauds are borne by poor depositors and other stake holders of banks is what the Dy Governor  has not revealed.The rich always steal and the poor attempts to steal when his times are bad and survival becomes difficult, is a fact and this is the issue to be dealt with by the authorities. Changing the definition of fraud will not make much sense, but changing the approach of banks to rich and poor in the grant of advances in particular can have some impact in reducing the fraud at least by the poor. The top management knows how the loans to rich turn into npas and finally get written off. Only the loans to poor are being seriously followed up, staff are made accountable and penalized Will the authorities seriously look into the real issues in the background of what has been made public now by none other than the regulator of the banks.

Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan

(This is in response to the observation "Fraud on banks , more by the rich,"  made by Dy Governor  k.C.Chakrabarty of the Reserve Bank that appeared in The Hindu Business line dated 27/07/13).

The era of RBI Governor Dr Subbarao

The present RBI Governor's period is some thing unique in the history of RBI. He took charge when there was global financial turmoil. and he had to ensure that Indian Financial system and the economy escaped unhurt because of the crisis. Subsequently, he had the misfortune of fighting both inflation and growth without the support of the Govt and the fiscal policy measures. Not only he failed to get the support but also had to face the displeasure of the Govt in not yielding to its pressures to dance to its tunes. He had to face the humiliation when the Govt set up the FSDC and made the RBI as any other institution like SEBI and IRDA without having any supremacy which as a Central bank of the Country it is entitled to. Adding insult to injury, the Government started giving directions to banks directly bypassing RBI. This gave the banks an upper hand and they gave the impression that they cared for more the Govt than the RBI. The SBI the biggest commercial bank instead of giving full support to RBI to ensure success of its monetary policies opposed RBI's every move to curry favour from the Government.The banking system failed both RBI and the Govt leading to such a pathetic condition of the economy.The banks tried to undercut both and landed themselves in liquidity crisis bringing down deposits, adding to NPAs and creating unprecedented mismatch between assets and liabilities. SBI chief has been against RBI policies and has been some sort of indirect support to other banks in challenging RBI measures. The result is the Govt suffers, the economy suffers, the banking system suffers and RBI has to tackle everything together. But the Governor will prove to be right in his thinking and actions if the Govt and the banks dare to introspect as to what they have done to RBI during the last three years in particular and realise their follies..Governor can keep his head high for his boldness and the challenges he faced to maintain the Reserve Bank's importance and supremacy without yielding to the pressures of the Govt and without having the normal cooperation and support of the banking system.Subba Rao's era will have some special place in RBI and Indian Economy's history for the challenges he faced both from the Govt and the banks. The economists will reailse the important role played by RBI during the most inactive performance of the Govt when they introspect in leisure. 

Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan

The Governor and his predicament

The  present  RBI Governor's period is some thing unique in the history of RBI. He took charge  when there was global financial turmoil. and he had to ensure that Indian Financial system and the economy escaped unhurt because of  the crisis. Subsequently, he had the misfortune of fighting both inflation and growth without the support of the Govt and the fiscal policy measures. Not only he failed to get the support but also  had to face the displeasure of the Govt in  not yielding to its pressures to dance to its tunes. He had to face the humiliation when the Govt set up the FSDC and made the RBI as any other institution like SEBI and IRDA without having any supremacy which as a Central bank of the Country it is entitled to. Adding insult to injury, the Government started giving directions to banks directly bypassing RBI. This gave the banks an upper hand and they  gave the impression that they cared for more the Govt than the RBI. The SBI the biggest commercial bank instead of  giving full support to RBI to ensure success of its monetary policies opposed RBI's every move to curry favour from the Government.The banking system failed  both RBI and the Govt leading to such a pathetic condition of the economy.The banks  tried to undercut both and landed themselves in  liquidity crisis bringing down deposits, adding to NPAs and creating unprecedented mismatch between assets and liabilities. SBI chief has been against RBI policies and has been some sort of indirect support to other banks in challenging RBI measures. The result is the Govt suffers, the economy suffers, the banking system suffers and RBI has to tackle everything together. But the Governor will prove to be right in his thinking and actions if the Govt and the banks  dare to introspect as to what they have done to RBI during the last three  years in particular and realise their follies..Governor can keep his head high for his boldness and the challenges he faced to maintain the Reserve Bank's importance and supremacy  without yielding to the pressures of the Govt and without  having the normal cooperation and support of the banking system. 

The need to contain gold imports and make best use of the domestic gold resources

The article is well written and it offers a good suggestion to encash gold by offering attractive financial instruments.This solution is good to take care of the stocks already accumulated and scattered all over the country estimated at a staggering 20000 tonnes or even more. The practical approach to have credibility among stockists of gold who include households, businessmen etc is to have a Gold Bank established by the Government and the Reserve Bank jointly and mobilise the gold against creation of deposits at some rates determined based on market trend.The Gold being used as a medium of exchange should be declared as a criminal offence and Government should be able to track these transactions as is done in the case of Cash Transactions over Rs 10 lakhs as Suspicious transactions.The urgent need of the hour is to curtail imports not only for the present and for the future as well and at the same time utilise the gold resources domestically available for domestic investment and development purposes.The craze for gold has to come to an end and for that both economic and social approaches have to be simultaneously attempted.If inflation is kept under control,and proper financial literacy is imparted even among the best educated and literates, the import of gold can be contained to a great extent in the long run.

 Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan 

(This comment is in response to an article Gold and the CAD that appeared in Business standard dated 23/7/13)