EDITORIAL.

                                     LOWERING OF INTEREST RATES FOR LENDING.

                 The Finance Minister Mr.Arun Jaitley called for lowering of interest rates
                 to trigger growth.He says that the current interest rates are  disincentive. 
                 As inflation is stabilising he sees there is room for reduction of 
                 interest.But the Reserve Bank of India  does not seem to buy this 
                 argument.As Central bank they feel that the time is not still ripe for 
                 reduction and wish to wait for sometime till the inflation really 
                 stabilises .Both the arguments seem to be right.But can pure economics 
                 outweigh certain ground realities?.

                 If the Central bank reduces interest rates,the commercial banks will also
                 reduce their own interest rates.Lower interest rates make loans cheaper
                 which may lead to aggregate demand and spur economic growth.However,
                 it may even cause inflationery pressure which is worrying the RBI.What
                 worries the government is low credit offtake and the poor performance of
                 the manufacturing sector.Higher NPA's in the banking sector has lead to
                 "defensive banking" and the banks are shy of lending to manufacturing 
                 sector for the fear of adding more to the NPA's.This trend is not healthy 
                 in the long run.

                 One thing is sure,lower interest rates makes borrowing cheap which will
                 give a boost to the manufacturing sector and the demand for credit may
                 increase .This may even lead to higher economic growth and an increase
                 in real GDP.The government with people's mandate has certain duties
                 to perform like giving a boost to manufacturing sector which may lead to
                 increase in employment and also has to fulfil the Prime Minister's "Make
                 in India" for the world campaign.

                 

                             CAN WE HAVE A LAW LIKE 'THE FOREIGN ACCOUNT
                             TAX COMPLIANCE ACT (FATCA)  OF USA?.

                  The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is a U.S.Law enacted in
                  2010 as part of the Hiring Incentives To Restore Employment (HIRE)
                  Act. FATCA requires financial institutions outside the United States
                  to determine whether it has any customers who are U.S.Citizens and
                  report information on all of those customers' accounts to the Internal
                  Revenue Service (IRS).Any bank refusing to comply will be assessed
                  an automatic withholding Tax on its US source income.Eventhough
                  it has not even  fully gone  into effect yet (the first information 
                  exchange will take place in 2015),the law is widely viewed as a
                  'game changer ' in global information exchange and helped pave 
                  the way for other countries' commitments to a multi lateral
                 information exchange system. Source : Global Financial Integrity.

                 The G-20 nations declared in 2013 that the automatic exchange is
                 "the new Global standard" & pledged to begin exchanging
                 financial information automatically by the end of 2015.

                Global Financial Integrity estimates that in 2011,US$946.7 billion
                left developing countries in illicit financial outflows.

U S PRESIDENT 
BARACK OBAMA TO BE THE CHIEF GUEST ON
REPUBLIC DAY.

Mr.Barack Obama will be the first US
President to participate in our 
Republic Day function as Chief Guest.

White House Press Release said,"The
President will meet with the 
Prime Minister and Indian Officials
to strengthen and expand the US-India
strategic partnership".


Photo Courtesy: Rediff.com

EDITORIAL.

                                                    DO WE REQUIRE MORE BANKS ?.


             We understand Reserve Bank of India shortly  will invite applications for
             setting up of small finance & payment banks. The proposed bank will be
             catering to the low income households and small businesses.

             The Reserve Bank Governor Mr.Raghuram Rajan, wish to deepen the
              financial inclusion and this is a step towards that direction.Already, the 
             banking sector is crowded with State Bank and its subsidiaries,20 Public
             sector banks,foreign banks,Private banks (both Old & New) and 
             Cooperative Banks(both Scheduled & Un Scheduled).Added to this there
             are Cooperative Societies operating which are catering to some  sectors.
             Further, there are NBFC's, Development Financial Institutions like SIDBI,
             TFCI, IFCI,NABARD etc. In this crowded financial environment,do we 
             require some more more banks which we may call  by any name?. 
             The Post offices  along with State Bank group and the Public sector 
             banks have deep rural penetration which will deliver the desired results.
             The government started Bharatiya Mahila Bank last year  for women
             empowerment which should achieve the objectives of financing the 
             needs of women entrepreneurs both (small & Medium).RBI has 
             already given new bank licences to IDFC & Bandhan to start banks. 
             We donot know when the banks will start operation?.

             Hence, RBI must rethink on this idea of starting small finance & 
             Payment banks and instead reorganise,reorient and energise the 
             existing financial system to deliver the desired results.Earlier, the 
             government was thinking of consolidating the banking system by 
             merging banks so that the country will have few banks with large 
             capital & funding capabilities.But presently,the new government 
             is thinking of smaller banks to cater to the large population of 
             this country. Will the smaller banks be viable is the moot question?.

             
        

             
             

             

EDITORIAL.
                         WHY DID BJP OPT FOR VOICE VOTE INSTEAD OF
                            NUMBERS IN MAHARASHTRA?.                                                  
                   Mr.Fadnavis is seeking the vote of confidence for the first time and 
                   that too in the new assembly.The political pundits wonder why the 
                   BJP lead government which was confident of winning the vote of  
                   Confidence with the support of NCP should go for the voice vote                                                          instead of the numbers. The new Chief Minister of 
                   Maharashtra in his own interest and on behalf of the party should  
                   have Preferred the numbers instead of voice vote which is now 
                   disputed by the Congress Party and Shiv Sena. Though ,the Chief 
                   Minister Mr.Fadnavis said if the Congress party and Shiv Sena  
                   wants, they can move a No Confidence Motion,but that is fire fighting.  

                   Though the decision of the Speaker is final, the new Chief Minister 
                   of Maharashtra should have started his political career in a better 
                   note .Had the Vote of Confidence was put to vote with numbers,the
                   BJP would have won it and would have even exposed few 
                   members IF, there was any cross voting .

EDITORIAL.

                                                  SWACH BHARAT CAMPAIGN
                                                  IS CELEBRITIES & POLITICIANS
                                                  USING IT AS A PHOTO OP ?.

                     Swach Bharat Campaign announced by the Prime Minister is a very
                     good campaign and it should be a movement all over the country to
                     keep the country clean.But,of late, what is happening is, the 
                     politicians and celebrities have hijacked the campaign for their 
                     promotion and using it as a photo op. Here, the media also should 
                     play the role by not giving prominence to such photo ops.Instead, 
                     they should focus on simple and common people and also the 
                     people who really keep our cities clean.
                     

ALL INDIA BANK STRIKE ON  

12th NOVEMBER,2014.

RELAY ZONAL STRIKES FROM 2nd TO 5th DECEMBER,2014.

United Forum of Bank Unions

representing Five workmen unions and Four officers' Associations have announced 

All India Bank strike on 12th November,2014.

The wage revision of bank employees is due from 01.11.2012 as the earlier 

settlement expired on 31.12.2012.The Unions say that their Charter of Demands 

were submitted to Indian Banks Association (IBA) before the expiry of the settlement.

The Unions say that they were given 17.5% hike in the last settlement and this time, 

inspite of having 13 round of discussions,the IBA has offered only 11% increase.

The Unions say that the bankmen work tirelessly for the growth of the country and

also cooperated with the government in implementing all the schemes of the 

government including the present Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Jojna.The UFBU 

say that they have shown its willingness to adopt a flexible approach in order 

to finalise the settlement expeditiously.
The UFBU representing the Unions regret the inconvenience  to the esteemed
cutomers/general public on account of the proposed strike.

Mr.Ramji Raghavan addressing the audience

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT BANGALORE. 

41st Foundation Day.

Indian Institute of Management,Bangalore popularly called as IIM-B

celebrated its 41st Foundation day at its sprawling campus.

Mr.Ramji Raghavan,Founder and Chairman,Agastya International Foundation,Bangalore delivered the 41st Foundation Day lecture.The topic being,"Living and Acting Creatively".While delvering the lecture,he said ,"Unlocking the creative potential of children,adults and communities around the world -

rich,poor and downtrodden-is one of the central challenges of the 21st century".We 

have to find  ways and means to unlock and unleash the creativity.He said, there is Too much of "YES" in our system and not much of "WHY" and "WHY NOT" in our 

system. If we have to raise the speed limit of creativity in a society,we have to  

create conditions to trigger and unleash curiosity, he said.