YES Bank crisis: Cabinet likely to take up revival plan on March 13

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had met SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar on Friday to discuss the way forward.

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) recovery plan for YES Bank will require the focal government’s endorsement, which may come in by Friday, as indicated by an administration official. The draft ‘YES Bank Ltd Reconstruction Scheme, 2020’ will be set up for the endorsement of the Union Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when it meets on Friday, the authority said.

The RBI had made the draft recreation plot open on Friday, a day after it assumed control over the leading body of the upset moneylender and forced limitations on loaning and withdrawal exercises. The RBI had welcomed remarks from State Bank of India (SBI), which is relied upon to hold 49 percent stake in YES Bank, and different partners by Monday. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had met SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar on Friday to examine the route forward. chartAfter analyzing remarks on the draft conspire, the RBI may alter the arrangements and send it for the endorsement of the focal government.

Guideline Act, 1949, the Center can support the plan with no adjustments or with certain changes “as it might think about vital”.The scheme will come into force from the date as specified by the central government and there may be “different dates for different provisions of the scheme”, according to the law.

There was enough time to put together plan for YES Bank: Raghuram Rajan

Crisis-ridden Yes Bank was put under a moratorium last week, with the RBI capping withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account and superseding its board.

Previous RBI senator Raghuram Rajan on Wednesday said there was a great deal of time to assemble an arrangement for YES Bank which had given “enough” notice about the issues it was confronting. Emergency ridden YES Bank was put under a ban a week ago, with the RBI topping withdrawals at Rs 50,000 for each record and overriding its board. SBI is set to get 49 percent stake in the bank under RBI’s reproduction plan.

“Truly Bank had given us enough notification that it has been in difficulty…so there was sufficient opportunity to assemble an arrangement. “I trust what we have is best accessible (plan), however I would prefer not to re-think, since I don’t have the foggiest idea about the subtleties,” Raghuram Rajan said in a meeting to CNBC-TV18. Rajan, who finished his three-year term at the RBI in 2016, attested that he has been stating for quite a while now that there is a need to tidy up the money related division rapidly and in a steadfast manner with the goal that the nation can push ahead.

“Reluctance to tidy up has delayed condition of discomfort in Indian economy… “Tidy up must be attempted on a crisis premise, in any case feeling of certainty which is required in our NBFC, private banks and even in our state-possessed banks that would be feeling the loss of, that implies money related part can’t add to the development,” he said. Rajan, an educator of fund at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, likewise worried on making the monetary records of budgetary establishments as perfect as could reasonably be expected, fixing administration issues and recapitalising banks. “So this is something we began in 2015, and it’s 2020, 5 years is unreasonably long for it,” he said…

Slowdown to bad debts: Shaktikanta Das’s balancing act is becoming tougher

As the economy slows, the Reserve Bank governor will find it tough to keep all the balls in the air in the many roles he performs.

Soon after taking over as India’s central bank governor almost a year ago, Shaktikanta Das decorated his 18th floor office overlooking the Arabian Sea with two statues of Lord Jagannath, a form of the Hindu god Vishnu.

Revered in Das’s native Odisha state, Jagannath is depicted with round, lidless eyes that are always watching over the welfare of devotees. It’s an appropriate adornment.

Das, overseeing what was until recently the world’s fastest-growing major economy, has worked tirelessly to restore relations with the government after a bitter public spat led his predecessor Urjit Patel to quit. Colleagues say Shaktikanta Das usually tucks papers under his arms at the end of the work day to continue plugging away from home.

He’s paid a hefty dividend to the finance ministry, swung into stimulus mode and eased up on bank lending restrictions—all of which Patel resisted in the face of government pressure. But there’s still much to do: the economy is losing steam on many fronts, the banking sector remains saddled with one of the world’s worst bad-debt loads and the government’s fiscal targets are slipping by the day.

Insiders say Das has turned around the mood in the bank’s Mumbai headquarters with an affable, plain-spoken approach. As one official said: He listens to everyone and then sticks to his own decision.

Among the RBI rank and file, the more academically-decorated predecessors of Patel and Raghuram Rajan were considered outsiders due to their long stints in American academia. Long-timers were put offside as in-house talent was often bypassed in senior appointments. Not with Das: in the job posting for a deputy in-charge of monetary policy, at least 25 years of government experience within India tops the priority list among requirements for the role…

Recalling when and what went wrong necessary: FM on ‘worst phase’ remark

Conceding that there were some “weaknesses” in his regime, former PM Manmohan Singh had on Thursday said the Modi government should stop blaming the UPA for every economic crisis

Recalling when and what went wrong during a certain period is absolutely necessary, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said, targeting former prime minister Manmohan Singh for accusing the NDA government of always trying to put the blame on its rivals. Conceding that there were some “weaknesses” in his regime, Singh had on Thursday said the Modi government should stop blaming the UPA for every economic crisis, as five years were sufficient time to come up with solutions.

“I respect Dr Manmohan Singh for telling me not to do the blame game. But recalling when and what went wrong during a certain period is absolutely necessary to put it in context, now that I’m being charged that there’s no narrative at all about the economy,” Nirmala Sitharaman told a group of Indian reporters here on Thursday. She was responding to a question on allegations by Singh that the government was always trying to put the blame on its opponents instead of finding solutions.

The senior Congress leader’s comments at the press conference in Mumbai came after Sitharaman at an event at the Columbia University in New York held the Manmohan Singh-Raghuram Rajan combination responsible for subjecting public sector banks (PSBs) to their “worst phase”.

War of words over Rajiv Kumar's column on foreign influence in policymaking

While Bibek Debroy echoed his view in Twitter, Pronob Sen questioned Kumar's conclusion

economy news: A war of words over foreign influence on Indian policymaking broke out on Tuesday after NITI Aayog vice-chairman-designate Rajiv Kumar suggested in a newspaper column that Indian-American economists were fading away as part of the ongoing policy transformation in the government.

Kumar had referred to the exit of incumbent NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya and former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan, and wrote that “if Lutyens’ Delhi rumours are to be believed, more such resignations can come”. Rajiv Kumar also said that as a result of this transformation, the country might witness appointment of individuals with much better understanding of India’s ground realities.

While Bibek Debroy, Kumar’s future colleague in the NITI Aayog, took to Twitter to echo his view, former chief statistician and principal director in the erstwhile Planning Commission Pronab Sen questioned Kumar’s conclusion.

“The foreign influence wanes, So read the weather vanes. Filthy lucre of a foreign land/ Has sullied many a hand/ And fogged the brains,” Debroy tweeted.

The tweet got an avalanche of response and the sarcasm was evident. Washington-based Sadanand Dhume responded: “All this is very well/ But it’s hard to sell/ Cambridge as a native school/ Oxford as a gurukul/ How some manage, pray tell.”

Kumar did his D.Phil from Oxford, and Debroy was in Cambridge.

Panagariya, who will be returning to Columbia University in the US as professor, told a TV channel that he did not want to comment on the issue. He also refused to talk about his precedessor or successor.

Author Ravi Mantha wrote, “Rushed back from distant shores / to join the rushing tide./ Stepped into manure for an uncertain tenure./ But luckily kept our foreign sinecure.”

Sen, now country director for the International Growth Centre’s (IGC) India Central Programme, was more straightforward in his response. “I don’t think it is an issue of whether home-grown economists are better than those who have worked abroad. To me the real issue is what your axiomatic approach to economics is.”....

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New NITI Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar hints at more exits after Panagariya

According to a column by Kumar, foreign influence on Indian policy making is fading under Modi

Under Narendra Modi, foreign influence on Indian policy making is fading away, writes Rajiv Kumar, who has been selected to replace Arvind Panagariya as the new vice-chairman of the NITI Aayog. In a column published by Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, while referring to Panagariya's exit earlier this month and Raghuram Rajan's decision last year to return to academia after completing his three-year stint as the RBI governor, Kumar writes that if "rumours in Lutyens’ Delhi" are to be believed, more such resignations may occur.

According to Kumar's column, as the "Anglo-American" influence fades, India may see the appointment of homegrown experts who understand its ground realities better than their foreign counterparts and who will be willing to stay and work until the end of their terms.

(economy policy)

Kumar, who holds a DPhil in Economics from the Oxford University and a Ph.D. from the Lucknow University, also argues in his column that it has taken a long time for the Indian policy establishment to shed what he describes as its "Macaulayist mentality".

Kumar writes that in the past, experts emerging from domestic academic institutions have been turned down for high-ranking government positions in favour of their foreign counterparts. As a result, Kumar argues, Indian policies have been influenced by organisations like the IMF, the World Bank, and the foreign universities that these imported experts revere.

As reported earlier, Kumar, a homegrown economist who likes to keep a low profile, is currently a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and has also served as the director of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). CPR and ICRIER are two of the biggest think-tanks in the country....

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