Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Inflation won't affect RBI projections, says Gokarn

The decline in industrial output in September and the marginal rise in inflation in October would not affect the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) projections for the year, Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn said on Monday. “We haven't seen anything that might suggest we need to revise that guidance...So, the guidance still stands, based on both the growth number and the inflation number…The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth was at the lower end of the possible range. It doesn't have an impact on the projection for the year as a whole,” Gokarn said. The RBI deputy governor said the inflation trajectory was in line with expectations and that the October policy guidance by RBI still held. He said the stance the central bank had factored in deceleration. In its October 25 mid-quarter review of monetary policy, RBI had hinted it may take a pause, provided inflation started easing from December. “How it plays out later on, particularly on dynamics of inflation, will clearly have an influence beyond the quarter. But for now, what we have said for December, and possibly for January, I don't think has been impacted,” Gokarn said. Wholesale price index-based inflation in October stood at 9.73 percent, marginally up from 9.72 per cent in September, as prices of food items rose. In September, IIP growth fell to a two-year low of 1.9 per cent, primarily due to poor manufacturing sector output. “If you look at our month-by-month projection in our policy statement, it's very close to what we expected, both the headline and the core inflation. So, in that sense, the trajectory seems to be holding up,” Gokarn said, adding the interest rate cycle may have peaked.
BS

CENTRAL BANK’S DILEMMA - The economy will benefit if licences are given to rural banks

The Reserve Bank of India controls how many banks may compete for our business. It has not licensed any bank in ten years. Meanwhile, Indian banks’ margins continue to be amongst the highest in the world: they pay depositors a pittance, and charge borrowers through the nose. Not that they make unreasonable profits; they just incur extraordinarily high costs. To put it slightly differently, they are extremely inefficient. That they can remain so has much to do with the fact that the RBI has protected them from competition; it is reasonable to infer that the RBI has not given licences to fresh banks because it does not want banks to have to face competition. As I have put it before, the RBI is the mother of government banks; it protects them like a doting mother, and makes sure they fatten themselves. That is good business from the government’s point of view; there is no reason for any government type to lose sleep over it. But then, the present government has another obsession, namely inclusive growth. The commonsense meaning of this piece of officialese would be that income distribution should improve, or at least not worsen. A commonsense government would therefore make taxation more progressive, or reduce tax evasion. But our government cannot or would not do that. It prefers to give handouts to the poor. If it collected more taxes, it would become unpopular. If it distributes handouts, those whom it favours will hopefully vote for the ruling party. That is the political arithmetic.
That is my interpretation. How does the government think? How would it justify perpetuation of oligopoly in banking? The finance minister does not bother to talk about such things; but recently, an explanation of sorts has emanated from the mother of banks. K.C. Chakrabarty, the deputy governor of RBI, gave a speech in Chennai in the first week of November, drafted by Dr Mridul Saggar. It had never struck me that the reason why the RBI protects government banks is that if they could not face competition and had to contract, they would not be able to afford so many employees. They employ a million workers. One would never imagine that; when one goes to the bank, one does not find them falling over each other to serve one. But they are why the RBI has protected banks from competition, and reneged on its promise to allow more foreign banks in. But now it is preparing to change its tune, because the primary reason for its abhorrence of competition, namely too many employees, is about to disappear. A large proportion of the employees was taken soon after nationalization of 14 banks in 1969, and more after another seven were nationalized in 1980. Many of these workers are about to retire. So the fears of redundancy arising from competition have receded; the RBI does not mind if new workers are brought in by new banks. Old banks are still against it; they have been telling the RBI that the economy is slowing down, that it will raise their bad debts and reduce their profits. That is a bad time to have to face new competition. The RBI is hesitating, but trying to persuade the old banks.
Another reason for the RBI’s change of mind is the government’s fetish about financial inclusion. One would have thought that the way of making the poor less poor was to give them more money. But our government thinks differently; it thinks that they should be given more loans, so that they can renege on them. So the RBI has devised a “package” that would become a fundamental right of the poor; it would include four “products” to use officialese — a savings account with overdraft facility, a remittance “product”, a long-term deposit “product”, and a credit card.
But there is a problem in extending the package to all the poor: many live far away from bank branches. The RBI has been trying for decades to make banks open branches in villages; but they do not like it. There are no good schools or doctors in villages, and bank employees do not like to be stationed there. The RBI thought of another solution called bank correspondents: they would be agents instead of employees. But then banks would not have much control on them, and would not like to leave much cash with them, and without cash, the correspondents would not be able to service depositors’ accounts. Something like this has been tried out in Kenya which I have just been to see. There, a company called Safaricom has opened windows in shops all over the country. Anyone can go to one of the branches, pay in money, and ask the girl to transfer the money to his wife in some village. He then rings up his wife on his cellphone and asks her to go and collect the money; the girl rings up her Safari colleague on her cellphone and asks her to pay the wife, and the transaction is made. Behind the village branch, there is a local rich man — a shopkeeper or transporter, for example — who puts up the money temporarily if there is a shortage. That is how M-Pesa started; now the system also takes deposits from clients and gives credit. So it started as a money transfer system, and has developed into a deposit bank. One reason why M-Pesa worked in Kenya and bank correspondents have not in India is that Safaricom is virtually a monopoly. It is not so legally, but because it was the pioneer, it had the field to itself. In India, a problem would arise if there were only a couple of rich guys in a village and 20 banks competed for them. The other problem is in making the system profitable. M-Pesa makes good money on money transfers. In India, taking deposits would be a loss-making activity, and would have to be backed up by lending; banks may be prepared to let correspondents handle deposits, but would not like them to be giving out loans on their behalf. The problem arises because banks have no knowledge of villagers and do not know whom to lend and whom not to. Local rich guys would; but they would already be local moneylenders, and there is no reason why they should give up their own moneylending business and do it on behalf of the banks. There is a deep prejudice against moneylenders amongst our rulers, going back 150 years; now they find they cannot extend banking to villages without turning to moneylenders. And the moneylenders would not serve banks; they are banks already. The obvious solution would be to give rural bank licences. But the most eligible people for those licences would be moneylenders. The official types loathe the moneylender, and they cannot find anyone else who could run banks with any chance of success. So they will keep bumbling. And every once in a while, they will lose their cool and do something stupid like banning microfinance institutions, as they did in Andhra Pradesh. Competition can eliminate inefficient banks, but not mindless governments.
The Telegraph 

Women use their debit cards less frequently, reveals RBI survey

This piece of information may give you some insight into how women deal with money. The Reserve Bank of India, in a survey, has found that they use their debit cards less frequently. What one could deduce from this finding is that women prefer to use credit cards for shopping to avail themselves of the 45-day credit period. But when it comes to hard cash for daily needs, it is the hubby who swipes the debit card at an ATM. “Women may be smarter when it comes to money matters. The 45-day free credit period that comes with shopping with a credit card is an irresistible attraction,” said Mr Sanjay Sharma, Managing Director IDBI Intech, a banking and financial service technology provider.  The number of debit and credit cards outstanding as at September-end 2011 was 25 crore and 1.76 crore respectively. Some of the other findings of the RBI's survey to assess customer satisfaction in the usage of ATMs across the country are: the use of cards for shopping was more among the youth; the use of debit cards for shopping was the highest in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Further, debit cards were mainly used for withdrawing cash or shopping purposes and the use of these cards for bills payment/ticket purchase was still low. The survey covered 600 ATMs distributed proportionately over metro, urban, semi-urban and rural regions, constituting one per cent of the total number of 60,000 ATMs in the country.
HBL

Obituary

Shri.S.G.Birje passed away on 10th November 2011 in Mumbai. He was 71 years old and had served the Bank for over thirty five years. He retired as Grade B Officer from U B D. May his soul rest in peace.
As reported by P.P.Ramachandran (via e-mail)

Consumers' complaints against public sector banks on the rise

Pensioners may soon feel more welcome at public sector bank counters, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked public sector lenders to improvise their pension services. According to an RBI survey on complaints on pension services, 95 per cent were unhappy with the services of public sector banks. “The area in which the public sector banks have to pay attention is pension services,” RBI said. The total number of complaints on pension for all scheduled commercial banks stood at 5, 810, of which 5,746 were against public sector banks. State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, accounted for 4,000 of the total complaints. SBI’s profits declined 99 per cent in the last quarter of the previous financial year on account of provisioning for its deferred pension liabilities. Public sector lenders were also ahead of the Indian banking industry, with respect to complaints. While the number of complaints declined for banks, public sector banks saw a rise in customer complaints. The total number of complaints dropped 12 per cent to 66, 927 in 2010-11, compared to the previous year. For public sector banks, complaints rose two per cent to 42,724.
BS

RBI rejects proposal of leasing mortgaged land to recover dues

Chandigarh : The Reserve Bank has turned down the Haryana government''s proposal that mortgaged land of farmers, who have defaulted on their loans, be managed under lease arrangements instead of auctioning it for recovery. Describing the Haryana government''s proposal as non-feasible and non-viable, the central bank observed that if the proposed system is implemented, it will "vitiate the credit atmosphere" and will also cause diversion of banks'' resources without any substantial gain on recovery front. A senior official of Punjab National Bank, which is the convener bank of State Level Bankers'' Committee (SLBC) in Haryana, today said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has examined the proposal of the Haryana government. "Such a scheme of lease arrangement will neither be feasible nor viable in the state," he added. The RBI, in its latest communication to the convener bank, further observed, "The scheme may invite legal complications for banks and credit to farm sector might be adversely affected." Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had asked the RBI Governor D Subbarao in October last year that in case of loan default, land of a farmers held as collateral security by commercial banks should not be auctioned and instead it should be managed under lease arrangement. Under the lease arrangement proposal, fifty per cent of the income generated from lease arrangement should be used for realisation of bank dues, while 50 per cent should be given to the defaulting farmer. In addition, the land should be restored to the farmers once the full amount is recovered. After this proposal, SLBC constituted a sub-committee under the chairmanship of Secretary (Agriculture), Haryana, which decided to test the efficacy of the lease arrangement scheme, though bankers and NABARD opposed the same. The matter was then referred to the RBI by SLBC Haryana in June and September this year for its nod.
MSN News

Global banking system is fraught with uncertainties: RBI

The Reserve Bank on Monday said the global banking system is fraught with many uncertainties due to the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Eurozone and asked for concerted action from both the developed and the emerging economies for its revival. "The near-term outlook for the global banking system is fraught with many uncertainties, some of which are beyond its direct control," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its report titled 'Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2010-2011'. Elaborating on the risks faced by the global financial system, the central bank said downside risks and challenges outweigh the positive efforts towards revival. "The downside risks are manifold and arise not just from within the banking system but also from the financial system in general, fiscal conditions and state of the global economy," the report said. It, however, noted the fact that there was a marginal improvement in capital adequacy and profitability of the global banking system in 2010-11. The RBI also pointed out that global financial system, which had faced a crisis in 2008-09 due to mortgage loan defaults in the US, is still vulnerable to various downside risks. "The global banking system, however, stands weak on many counts after the crisis (US mortgage). First, the system as a whole and most advanced economies, especially the fiscally strained economies in the Eurozone, still show very weak credit growth," the report said. It added that the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Eurozone has created credit, market and funding risks in these economies. "Onset of sovereign debt pressure since early 2010 have given rise to renewed credit, market and funding risks in the eurozone economies with troubled sovereigns, as well as the peripheral economies of Germany, France and the UK, whose banks are either directly or indirectly exposed to these sovereigns," the apex bank said. The report added that despite attempts of deleveraging by the global banks, leverage ratio is still very high for them. It added, "While growth and soundness of banks in advanced economies are at a low, the credit growth in emerging economies has been high leading to concerns about overheating of these economies."  It added that high levels of inflation coupled with increasing short-term capital flows into these economies have further raised concerns about financial stability.
NDTV Profit

RBI voices concern over State Govts regulating microfinance institutions

...If State Governments start enacting their own legislations to regulate micro-finance institutions (MFIs), including the ones regulated by the Reserve Bank of India, there will be plurality of regulation leaving scope for regulatory arbitrage, says the report on ‘Trend and Progress of the Banking in India 2011-12'. ....

Read...........

Banking policy decisions in sync with economic growth: RBI

The Reserve Bank today said the banking sector policy during 2010-11 remained consistent with the broader objective of macroeconomic policy of sustaining economic growth. "The RBI has introduced important policy measures of deregulation of savings bank deposit rate and introduction of credit default swap (CDS) for corporate bonds," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its report -- 'Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2010-2011'. It also said important policy discussions, like issuance of new banking license; designing the road-ahead for the presence of foreign banks and holding company structure for banks had been initiated in the 2010-11 period.  Emphasising on financial inclusion, the central bank said that one of the most note-worthy development was the formation of board-approved financial inclusion plans by banks for a time horizon of the next three years. Going forward, the central bank said its policy would focus on financial stability and financial inclusion.
NDTV Profit

Customer service slips in public sector banks

Coimbatore  : While a good number of people generally state that they prefer to have their accounts in state-run banks, citing safety as the most important criteria, the banking regulator's findings reveal that customer service complaints against public sector banks have risen in 2010-11 as compared to those against private sector and foreign banks. ‘Customer satisfaction is an integral element in inculcating trust among the common people on the banking sector,' states the Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2010-11. Understanding the importance of customer service in banking, the RBI set up a separate customer service department in 2006 as also Banking Ombudsman (BO) offices in 15 major banking centres. The BO has since proved to be a forum for redressing complaints received from customers. According to the latest Trend and Progress report, the number of complaints received by the banking ombudsman has dipped in 2010-11 to 71,274 from 79,266 in 2009-10. The decline in complaints has been more visible in the BO offices in Chennai, where it fell from 12,727 in 2009-10 to 7,668 in 2010-11, in New Delhi from 12,045 to 10,508 and in Mumbai from 10,058 to 7,566. In the midst of this declining trend, Bhopal, Patna, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Guwahati reported an increase in the number of complaints. The report further points out that the number of complaints per branch was high for foreign banks at 22.34, with almost a-fourth of the total received against credit/debit/ ATM cards. The second largest number of complaints was with regard to pension followed by loans and advances. More than 90 per cent of the total complaints relating to Direct Selling Agents (DSA) were received against foreign banks and new private banks in 2010-11 and 50 per cent (of the total complaints) related to hidden charges. Such complaints were found to be relatively less in public sector banks. Pension-related complaints were instead quite high, accounting for almost 95 per cent of the total complaints, in public sector banks. The RBI had constituted a Committee under the Chairmanship of the former Chairman of SEBI, Mr M. Damodaran, to examine banking services rendered to retail and small customers, including pensioners in 2010.  The Committee was also mandated to look into the grievance redressal mechanism prevalent in banks, suggest measures for expeditious resolution of complaints. The committee interacted with various stakeholders on all aspects of customer service, including attitude of bank staff towards small and rural customers, service charges, transparency in operations, grievance redressal, customer rights and expectations, among others.
HBL

Large financial firms will be closely monitored: RBI

Considering the multi-national presence of large financial institutions and their role in the current global economic environment, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is keeping a close watch on such institutions in the country. The central bank has set up a ‘financial conglomerates monitoring division’, which is currently overseeing twelve institutions that account for 53 per cent of the banking sector’s total assets. RBI Governor D Subbarao on Monday said many Indian banks had grown to become ‘financial conglomerates’, and this posed regulatory challenges like the absence of an adequate legal framework and a limited inter-regulatory co-operation framework. He said the central bank had started carrying out stress tests under various scenarios, as part of the half-yearly financial stability reports. “An important task would be drawing up resolution plans that explicitly take into consideration information on inter-linkages among institutions,” Subbarao said, while addressing the International Association of Deposit Insurers conference in Jodhpur on Monday. To minimise the depositors’ woes in case of a bank failure, the central bank has asked the government to exempt bank mergers from the provision in which the Competition Commission’s approval is required. “The commission has been allowed up to 210 days to decide on it before the default clause kicks in. This further complicates the resolution of banks through mergers and the uncertainty can be potentially destabilising,” Subbarao said. There is a need to review whether granting an extended mandate to the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) in resolution of failing banks would help in faster settlements to depositors and lower costs, he said. He added the dual control led to delays in resolution of urban-cooperative banks--- the appointment of liquidators, gathering of information about depositors, depositor payouts and the recovery of assets. The central bank shares supervisory authority with central or state governments. Subbarao said DICGC funds were largely used for the payout of urban co-operative banks, though commercial banks were the major contributors to the funds. He said, “The fund maintained by DICGC appears adequate, but it is not clear whether the fund would be able to meet claims arising from the putative failure of a couple of small or medium sized commercial banks.”
BS 

RBI recipe to boost bank savings kitty

... In its report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India that was released here today, the central bank said there was a need to raise the level of domestic savings and channel those savings into investment to maintain the momentum of India’s economic growth....

Read.........

RBI for comprehensive law to deal with solvency in financial sector

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today pitched for a comprehensive legislation to deal with the solvency problems in the banking and financial sector, and to protect it from the impact of the global crisis.  "Addressing these questions (relating to risks in the financial sector) will require some fundamental changes in our legal and regulatory framework," RBI Governor D Subbarao said here while addressing a conference. The first challenge, he added, "is developing a comprehensive legal framework for resolution that covers all the different types of financial institutions". Subbarao said the "legal framework governing bank resolution is spread all over, making the framework complex and often time non-transparent". He said the financial crisis has underscored the importance of rapid resolution to arrest contagion and restore stability. "Even as we have been able to resolve problems of banks so far, it is not clear if our resolution framework has been put to severe test," Subbarao added. The resolution methods used in India are assisting troubled banks in restructuring or merging it with a strong institution. Subbarao said that even as failures of commercial banks have been rare in India, failures among urban-cooperative banks are quite common. He said the RBI has a 'Board for Financial Supervision' to review banks supervisory functions and monitors the performance of banks, especially weak banks.
NDTV Profit

Now, earn up to 16.53% returns from PPF

... Experts say the hike in interest rate has made the PPF the best option for conservative investors.....

Read.......... 

Are market-linked small savings attractive?

... Though the rates have become dynamic, our investment advice with respect to the two most popular investment vehicles from the stable of NSSF—PPF and SCSS—doesn’t change. They remain attractive investment vehicles in the long term for post-retirement income.....

Read.........

Here's the real picture behind rising NPAs

The RBI says total gross bad loans in FY11 fell to 2.25% of total loans from 2.39% but this hides the real picture. CNBC-TV18’s Latha Venkatesh reports with some interesting details from the RBI report on bank bad loans.  The RBIs report indicates a mixed picture on NPLs but largely positive. It says gross NPAs in FY11 actually fell to 2.25% from 2.39% in the previous year but this could be a understatement because a lot of loans got written off. 10% of the gross NPAs of the previous year were written off. What happened when you write off loans is the total amount of advances itself shrinks. So the percentage of bad loans looks a little better. Likewise if you looked at restructured loans that also rose rather significantly from 2.16% of total standard loans in FY09 to 3% in FY10 to 2.66% in FY11, so since a lot of loans were restructured following Lehman that also made the gross NPLs look a little smaller, perhaps understated. RBI has done a stressed analysis. If you assume that all the restructured loans will go bad then the gross NPLs rise to 5% but separately bankers tell us that only about 20% of the restructured loans actually went bad and therefore perhaps the picture is not all that disturbing. Also banks increased their provisioning requirement because of RBIs rules. Total amount of provision cover rose from 51% to 55% in FY11. Therefore net NPAs rose very slowly, rose only by 8%. The other important point that RBI points out is recoveries have been somewhat rising. Banks recovered 57% of their outstanding gross loans as of FY10. That is not very good.  In several other countries the recoveries are much higher…but this is because of the SARFESI Act, debt recovery tribunals and Lok Adalats.  There have been an increasing number of cases addressed through both the SARFESI as debt recovery tribunal.

Watch the video.............

RBI asks banks to guard asset quality, tighten risk management

....“Asset quality of banks needs to be closely watched in the changing interest rate environment as the sticky loan portfolio of small and medium enterprises might rise,” ..........

Read............

Effective corporate governance vital, banks told

Being at centre of the economy, banks must ensure effective corporate governance to avoid the spread of failures to the financial system, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said. Issues related to corporate governance that need adequate attention include bank ownership, accountability, transparency and ethics compensation, RBI has said in the Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India. Splitting the posts of chairman and chief executive officer in banks and corporate governance under a financial holding company structure also deserve adequate attention, it said. Banks are interconnected in diverse, complex and opaque ways, underscoring their 'contagion' potential. If a corporate fails, the fallout can be restricted to stakeholders. But if a bank fails, the impact can spread rapidly to other banks, with potentially serious consequences for the entire system, the central bank said. It added the corporate governance of banks was not only different, but also more critical. Banks are the conduits of monetary policy transmission and constitute the economy's payment and settlement system. Also, by the very nature of their business, banks are highly leveraged, the report said. Banks accept large public funds as deposits in a fiduciary capacity and further leverage these funds through credit creation, RBI said. Regulation has a role to play in ensuring robust corporate standards in banks. However, though effective regulation is necessary, it is not a sufficient condition for good corporate governance, RBI added. 
BS

Moody’s says meeting with Indian govt, RBI routine

Singapore: Moody’s Investor Service’s meetings with Indian government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials on Monday were pre-arranged and are not linked to the downgrade of the country’s banking sector outlook last week, a senior analyst said on Monday. Moody’s has currently assigned Baa3 rating for India, the lowest investment grade rating, with a stable outlook. “This is a regular annual visit that we have with all governments globally,” Thomas Byrne, the agency’s senior analyst for Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings told Reuters. “The purpose of this meeting is to go to India and kick the tyres… The negative outlook refers to banking sector performance and doesn’t necessarily correlate to sovereign performance,” he added. Moody’s last week cut its outlook for India’s banking system to “negative” from “stable”, and warned that slowing growth at home and overseas were hitting asset quality, capitalisation and profitability. There has been some speculation in the Indian media that the meetings, coming so soon after this move, could suggest that the country’s credit-worthiness is at risk.
Firstpost

RBI's concern over uneven credit growth

......The report conveys that despite challenges, the banking sector in India can look forward to enormous opportunities in their quest for long-term growth. In the long-term, the RBI said, banks need to build on four principles, namely, efficiency, stability, transparency and inclusion. ..............

Read.............

RBI cancels banking license of Gujarat Industrial Co-operative Bank

The Reserve Bank of India Monday cancelled the license of Gujarat Industrial Co-operative Bank (GICB) as it ceased to be solvent. The RBI delivered the order cancelling its licence to the bank on November 11, after all efforts to revive it in consultation with the Gujarat government had failed. The Central Registrar of Co-operative Societies, has also been asked to issue an order for winding up the urban cooperative bank and appoint a liquidator for it, an official statement said today. On liquidation, every depositor of the bank shall be entitled to repayment of deposits up to a monetary ceiling of Rs one lakh, from the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), it said. The revival plan submitted by the bank in 2010 was considered, but was found to be not viable as it was not in conformity with the RBI guidelines, it stated. The merger proposal from Saraswat Bank, Mumbai failed to materialise, it said. The inspection of the bank by RBI on 31st March, 2010 showed its deteriorating financial health. The bank's net worth and Capital to Risk Weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR), the ratio used to protect depositors and promote stability, had gone into negative. The bank's net worth and CRAR went in negative and stood at (-) Rs29,184.18 lakh and (-) 365 per cent, respectively during an inspection on 31st March,2010, the statement said. The assessed net loss of bank stood at Rs3,963 lakh as against reported net loss of Rs3,872.93 lakh. The gross and net non-performing assets (NPA's) formed 85.4 and 21.3 per cent of the gross and net advances respectively. A criminal complaint has been filed by the administrator of the bank against the ex-Board of Directors for their acts of omissions and commissions leading to huge losses to the bank, the statement said. The RBI issued several show cause notices to the bank asking it as to why the licence granted to it on September 29, 1999 to conduct banking business should not be cancelled. 
DNA

Making way for Margazhi

...“Our endeavour has always been to honour people from different fields and walks of life by inviting them to participate. This year too, S. R. Nathan, the former president of Singapore and Dr Y. V. Reddy, the former governor of RBI, will be special guests,”...

Read...............