Indian public sector banks had 'worst phase' under Manmohan, Rajan: Sitharaman

Agencies
October 16, 2019

New York, Oct 16: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the Indian public sector banks had the "worst phase" under the combination of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan.

Delivering a lecture at the prestigious Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in New York on Tuesday, Sitharaman said that giving all the public sector banks a “lifeline” is today her primary duty.

"I'm taking a minute to respond … I do respect Raghuram Rajan as a great scholar who chose to be in the central bank in India at a time when the Indian economy was all buoyant,” Sitharaman said during the lecture organised by the Deepak and Neera Raj Centre on Indian Economic Policies of the Columbia University.

Asked about Rajan's comments during a recent lecture at Brown University in which he had apparently mentioned that in its first term, the Narendra Modi government had not done better on the economy because the government was extremely centralised and the leadership does not appear to have a consistent articulated vision on how to achieve economic growth, the minister said instead there were major issues with bank loans during Rajan's tenure as the central bank head.

"It was in Rajan's time as governor of the Reserve Bank that loans were given just based on phone calls from crony leaders and public sector banks in India till today are depending on the government's equity infusion to get out of that mire," she said.

"Dr Singh was the Prime Minister and I'm sure Dr Rajan will agree that Dr Singh would have had a ‘consistent articulated vision' for India,” she said amid laughter from the audience.

"With due respect, I'm not making fun of anybody but I certainly want to put this forward for a comment which has come like this. I have no reason to doubt that Rajan feels for every word of what he is saying. And I'm here today, giving him his due respect, but also placing the fact before you that Indian public sector banks did not have a worst phase than when the combination of Singh and Rajan, as the Prime Minister and the governor of Reserve Bank, had. At that time, none of us knew about it,” she said.

Sitharaman said while she is grateful that Rajan did an asset quality review, but people should know what makes the banks ailing today.

"I am grateful that Rajan did an asset quality review but I'm sorry, can all of us put together also think of asking what ails our banks today. Where has it been inherited from,” she said.

The event was also attended by former Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, professor and eminent economist Jagdish Bhagwati and India's Consul General in New York, Sandeep Chakravorty.

Sitharaman said: "While economists can take a view of what prevails today or prevailed years ago, but I will also want answers for the time when Rajan was in the Governor's post speaking about the Indian banks, for which today to give a lifeline is the primary duty of the finance minister of India. And the lifeline-kind of an emergency has not come overnight”.

Responding to the question, Sitharaman further pointed out that if there is a feeling that there's been a centralised leadership now, "I'd like to say that very democratised leadership led to a whole lot of corruption. Very democratised leadership. The Prime Minister, after all is the first among equals in any cabinet".

"You need to have a country as diverse as India with an effective leadership. A rather too democratic leadership, which probably will have the approval of quite a lot of liberals, I'm afraid, left behind such a nasty stink of corruption, which we are cleaning up even today," she said.

Comments

Haha....LOL

muslims are very very happy...god give them wisdom...Alhamdullilla

only you third rated people are in trouble....one day your child will spit on your face to choosing such a nalayak PM for futur india...

 

you will never come back from the business...you can sell your family to NAMO RSS orginazition..we all know what they do!!

 

so much poison in heart towards muslim will kill you one day like cancer...

 

look at all muslim country most are destroyed by america but still they live happly...

 

once muslim get world power we will treat all people equal and work for huminaty...

 

Dont take tension...LOL

 

 

 

 

Namo Again
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Oct 2019

Blaming other not a solution always. But still I support Modi ji. Mine business is in loss, but i am satisfied because muslims lost more .Because if I lost one eye, muslims will loss both eyes. 

Sandesh Shetty
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Oct 2019

Such a shameless fellow. 

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News Network
July 1,2020

Sopore, Jul 1: Police rescued a three-year-old boy from getting hit by bullets during a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan and a civilian lost their lives after terrorists fired upon a CRPF patrolling party in Sopore.

Two of the injured CRPF jawans are known to be in critical condition. Three CRPF personnel were also injured in the attack, as per CRPF.

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News Network
July 26,2020

New Delhi, Jul 26: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday saluted the valour and grit of the Indian soldiers on the occasion of 21st anniversary of the 'Kargil Vijay Diwas'.

Shah took to Twitter and said that 'Kargil Vijay Diwas' is a symbol of India's proud, valour and steadfast leadership.

"Kargil Vijay Diwas is a symbol of India's proud, valor and steadfast leadership. I bow to the soldiers who, with their indomitable courage, drove the enemy from the inaccessible hills of Kargil and waved the tricolor there again. The country is proud of the heroes of India, who are dedicated to protecting the motherland," Shah tweeted (translated from Hindi)
The country is celebrating the anniversary of the 'Kargil Vijay Diwas'.

The Indian armed forces had defeated Pakistan on July 26, 1999. Since then, the day is celebrated as 'Kargil Vijay Diwas' to rekindle the pride and valour of the soldiers who took part in Operation Vijay.

The day marks the victory of Indian soldiers in recapturing the mountain heights that were occupied by the Pakistani Army on July 26, 1999, known as the Kargil War. 

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News Network
May 21,2020

Bengaluru, May 21: The COVID-19-induced lockdown saw a spurt in crybercrimes in India with Kerala recording the highest number during the period, according to an analysis of IT security solutions provider K7 Computing.

The report analyses various cyberattacks within India during the pandemic and reveals that threat actors targeted the States with COVID-19-themed attacks aimed at exploiting user trust.

The sudden surge in the frequency of attacks witnessed from February 2020 to mid-April 2020 indicates that scamsters across the world were exploiting the widespread panic around coronavirus at both the individual and corporate level, the company said in a statement.

These attacks aimed to compromise computers and mobile devices to gain access to users confidential data, banking details and cryptocurrency accounts.

The key threats seen during this period ranged from phishing attacks to rogue apps disguised as COVID-19 information apps that targeted users sensitive data.

Phishing attacks were noticed more in Tier-II and Tier-III cities while the metros fared better.

Smaller cities saw over 250 attacks being blocked per 10,000 users.

Users from Ghaziabad and Lucknow seem to have faced almost six and four times the number of attacks, respectively, as Bengaluru users.

In Kerala, regions like Kottayam, Kannur, Kollam, and Kochi saw the highest hits with 462, 374, 236, and 147 attacks respectively, while the state as a whole saw around 2,000 attacks during the period, the highest thus far in the country.

This was followed by Punjab with 207 attacks and Tamil Nadu at 184 attacks, the statement said.

A majority of the recorded attacks were phishing attacks with sophisticated campaigns that could easily snare even the most educated users, it said.

These attacks were aimed at heightening users fears and creating a sense of urgency to take action.

The report noted phishing attacks where scamsters posed as representatives of the United States Department of the Treasury, the World Health Organisation, and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Users were encouraged to visit links that would automatically download malware on the host computer such as the Agent Tesla keylogger or Lokibot information-stealing malware, infamous banking Trojans such as Trickbot or Zeus Sphinx, and even disastrous ransomware.

Other attacks included infected COVID-19 Android apps like CoronaSafetyMask that scam users with promises of masks for an upfront payment; the spyware app Project Spy; and seemingly genuine apps that are infected with dangerous malware like banking Trojans such as Ginp, Anubis and Cerberus, it was stated.

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