Leadership, performance and transformation through personnel management : V.S.Das

Inaugural address by Mr V S Das, Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India, at the seminar on “Leadership, performance and transformation through personnel management” held at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, 15 July 2012

.......In conclusion, let me leave you, with four types of knowledge that I feel are imperative for weaving together the ideas subsumed in the theme of today’s Seminar: (i) Self-knowledge or personal values and goals; (ii) Social Network Knowledge that involves those who surround you daily; (iii) Organizational Knowledge that extends to knowing and understanding people at all levels at the work-place; and (iv) Contextual Knowledge which engages myriad other stakeholders that your organization directly or indirectly works with......

 

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Statistics in the Reserve Bank of India - Deepak Mohanty

Welcome remarks by Mr Deepak Mohanty, Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India, on the occasion of 6th Statistics Day Conference, Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai, 17 July 2012

........The Reserve Bank’s policy canvas is large and goes beyond the rubric of a traditional central bank. We have the primary responsibility of compilation of banking and financial statistics as well as balance of payments statistics. We have also been compiling corporate finance statistics. We have been keenly aware of the need to constantly improve the statistics in terms of coverage, quality, frequency and level of dissemination.......

 

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Will 90% NBFCs lose RBI registration due to new norms

India's majority of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) may be freed from the regulatory clutches provided RBI implements one of the recommendations made by Usha Thorat Committee, which suggested maintaining a minimum asset size of more than Rs 50 crore along with a net owned fund of Rs 2 crore; for registering any new NBFC...................

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RBI holds outreach program

Vows 100% financial inclusion with JK Bank support

Srinagar, July 18: As part of its financial inclusion, Reserve Bank of India, Jammu office, today organized an outreach programme at village Theeru in Ganderbal.  The programme was presided over by K K Saraf, Regional Director, RBI, Jammu. Showkat Ahmad Mir, DDC, Ganderbal, was the chief guest and Rajeshwar Rao, Banking Ombudsman, RBI, New Delhi was the Guest of Honour on the occasion.................

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Bank employees stage dharna

....“Core jobs should not be outsourced. The word ‘core jobs’ is not well defined by the Reserve Bank of India. Without permanent jobs, there will be no sense of belonging or security for the employees,”....

Read - The Hindu

Financial SMS provider SWIFT to expand footprint in India

....."We are working with RBI and eight banks to offer a range of services including transaction networks covering local banks, securities clearances and settlement as well as other electronics mode of transactions," .......

Read - BS

Understanding safety of bank deposits

....Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) a wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the institution which has the responsibility of insuring deposits of customers made in banks. Deposits made by a customer in a bank upto Rs. 100000 is insured by DICGC provided the bank has availed deposit insurance from DICGC......

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Talking money

The phrase “paisa bolta hai" (money talks) is common in India as a euphemism for the bribe people pay to get any work done, especially among the public service providers. Now, the Reserve Bank of India has co-opted the phrase as part of a wider education effort on counterfeit currency. “Pehchano paise ki boli, kyunki paisa bolta hai“ (understand the language of money, because it talks), the central bank says on the website paisaboltahai.rbi.org.in. The site gives the specifics of all currency notes that the central bank prints and is aimed at dealing with counterfeit currency

BS

Control with care

Apropos the report “Govt and RBI are not adversaries: Subbarao” (July 17), the RBI Governor has rightly suggested that the government should refrain from micromanaging public sector banks. At the same time, one should also consider that in these times of economic turbulence, when any crisis in the banking sector could prove a disaster for the country’s economy, the government would prefer to keep a close watch on the sector’s performance. However, this does not call for interference in the day-to-day operations of public sector banks since that will only stymie their performance. Operational decisions can be left to individual banks, since there is sufficient competition in the market to enforce the necessary discipline. The present situation, however, calls for the RBI to review individual/group credit exposures and prescribe ceiling norms for credit to major sectors, so as to avoid fallouts from concentration risk. The RBI or the government may step in with directives for those banks in which they notice a continued deterioration in key parameters such as asset quality, profitability and so on.

 - V Sridhar Kolkata (BS)

Bite the bullet

.....The government must also use its influence with the Reserve Bank of India in order to introduce some much-needed monetary expansion. The RBI has been excessively cautious — or biased — in its policies. It seems to have given undue weight to the need to control prices, and done very little to take steps to ensure availability of credit. The pronounced slowdown in the economy cries out for a fair bit of monetary expansion......

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Decoding the supply puzzle

This refers to the news report about the RBI governor recommending a producer price index to measure the selling price of goods and services as a more effective policy tool. Such an index will help check at what prices the products and services are being sold to the end consumer. This move will help check the economy’s supply side, which I think is the main reason for inflation. This index will also help identify the role of middlemen in the supply chain.

Anand Wadadekar Pune (BS)

Tools of change - M G Warrier

This refers to the report “RBI wants a producer price index for inflation” (July 18). Earlier, too, the RBI governor had expressed concern over multiple tools being used by the government and various agencies to gauge price rise, with specific reference to the incoherence in the movement of wholesale price index (WPI) and consumer price index (CPI). Now RBI Governor D Subbarao has proposed a producer price index (PPI). The government and the authorities concerned should take this forward to enhance credibility and transparency in statistical tools. These statistical tools affect the common man’s daily life since they play an integral role in defining the cash flow of the poorest man’s household budget to the country’s current account deficit. Efforts should be made to use indices for understanding the movement of costs, prices and margins, industry- and sector-wise, and even in the country’s different geographical areas. This could be made possible by evolving PPI, CPI and margin index (tracking margins available at various levels in financial products, pharmaceuticals, real estate, services and so on) with dedicated purposes. Like the Tata Nano brought about some change in the automobile manufacturers’ mindset, the various indices, if scientifically evolved with transparency and speed, may bring about a change in our approach to rent, costs, profits and margins.

BS

My View on ''Counterfeit note makes senior citizen run from pillar to post''

 ''What Shri Kardar has said is that i) he got the note from BOI. ii)banks should have a mechanism to verify notes at the counter itself. iii)how can a lay man identify a fake note. A 80 years old person would certainly not lie. It is many a times common man would not be able to identify fake notes as he has no acumen to this effect. It is bank that is suppose to have expertise in the matter. Bank is also suppose to have required machinery / mechanism to detect fake notes which common man can not afford. Everybody, including President of AIRBEA Nagpur knows that RBI has virtually done away with responsibilty of examination of currency notes by closing its note examination counters and entrusted it to banks which have currency chests. Unfortunately,these banks-psu,private and highflier MNCs-are profit motivated and they do not resort to examination of notes which they receive as it is a costly affair of deploying note examiners. Whereas, once upon a time,in RBI every note was subjected to examination by Note Examiners. Now RBI is also thinking interms of profit as it has reduced its Note Examiners drastically and absolved itself from statutory responsibilty entrusted to it by the Government. Now, neither RBI nor above stated banks are interested in protecting common man. This is from where suffering of common man starts. What Shri Kardar suffers is an example. Whole nation is suffering on this account..This issue is supposed to be taken care of by the Parliament of India. Or else common man has to put to legal test. Can Shri Kedar, who is retired person, afford to take legal course?. ''

- L.R.Parab

 

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Dr Subbarao’s haircuts - TCA Srinivasa Raghavan

....Therein lies an economic question of Marshallian proportions: what determines the price of haircuts — the amount of work that the barber must do or something else? Like Dr Subbarao who is a late comer to the puzzle, I have always been fascinated by the economics of haircutting, not least because quality is invariant to price.....

Read - HBL

My View on "Subbarao compares spiralling haircut costs and inflation"

It was refreshing to read the Governor's comment on increasing  hair cut costs over the years. Very few persons of his stature have the rare ability to laugh at themselves which speaks of him as modesty personified. In early seventies, in a similar situation, when  asked the reason for hiking hair cut charges, the barber had this to say. "Sahib, don't you think we mortals have to strain our eyes to find hairs on your plate to give  customers like you a semblance of a hair cut?" He had a point = I was dumb struck looking at my receding hair line in the polished mirror.

- K.D.Savkur

Banks seen to cut lending rates

......“In the mad rush for deposit mobilisation, banks waged a rate war. It has been there for a long time. But the worst is now over. The RBI and the finance ministry have taken corrective measures to prevent banks from unnecessarily expanding their balance sheets. As a result, cost of funds for banks has also started coming down,” .......

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Which inflation concept is right for RBI?

.....There are basically two ways of looking at monetary policy targeting. The first is to look at a particular inflation number and work towards bringing it down. The other is to look at it from a theoretical or ideological standpoint and then use this basis for targeting inflation. This becomes important because, on its own, the inflation number we are targeting may not be influenced by monetary policy—which appears to be the case today......

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Falling Rupee: RBI cries, Government smiles

.....The government has taken some bold step to control CAD & would be taking a sigh of relief as trade deficit has narrowed down. Falling rupee might have left RBI crying but it has indeed given a reason for government to cheer.

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State-owned banks in the government-RBI crossfire

It is not new ---- the RBI-government tussle is not only on policy rates; in matters related to PSU banks, the state has been treading on RBI’s toes for years. But there are important differences between earlier and now. During the Chidambaram-YV Reddy period, the RBI had to fight bigger fires, like reining in the runaway growth of some private banks, and hence did not raise too much stink over this issue.......

Read - Mint

New govt rules will weaken public sector banks

The valuation gap between public sector and private sector banks is expected to increase, if the government has its way. Recent news flow indicates a rift between the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India with public sector banks being at the receiving end. After opposing the government’s legislation of setting up a Debt Management Office (DMO), RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao has objected to the ministry issuing orders to public sector bank directly and bypassing the board........

Read - BS

RBI rate cut unlikely as inflation to remain sticky: Killol Pandya, Daiwa Mutual Fund

.....There is a lot of talk regarding the soft inflation number prompting the RBI to take some steps on the rate front, especially in the context of the action some international central banks have taken. But the RBI continues to be worried about fuel and food inflation.......

Read - ET

Data gaps in NBFCs, co-op banks, inflation calculation: RBI

....“While the RBI’s coverage of the banking sector is quite robust, its coverage of NBFCs is much less so... This is a gap we must fill as the role of NBFCs in the financial intermediation process has been growing rapidly,”......

Read - Indian Express

Does India Still Have a Growth Story to Tell?

......Like the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plays a key role in promoting economic growth. But the RBI is dealing with a classic Catch-22 scenario; on the one hand, they have low growth rates to contend with, while on the other there’s surging inflation to consider. The RBI lowered its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points a few months ago, and has since May it has been left unchanged at 8%. Accelerating inflation coupled with a greatly devalued Rupee make another rate cut a near impossibility, and despite extreme political and social pressure to do so, the RBI has been able to resist lowering it..........

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Banks told to take a closer look at crop loans

......whether banks were ensuring that the amounts given were being utilised for the intended use. He said that subvention amounts must reach the beneficiary and asked whether banks followed norms of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and NABARD while giving crop loans. “Is credit for agriculture going in the right direction?,”.............

Read - The Hindu

Individuals can retain earnings in forex accounts: RBI

Individual residents who receive foreign currency will not be required to convert the funds into rupees, while exporters and corporates are mandated to do so, RBI said............

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Maharashtra’s co-op banks to lose Rs 900 cr zilla parishad deposits

.....Earlier this year, RBI had put 42 co-operative banks across India on a revival programme that involved a thorough scrutiny of them, besides barring them from accepting fresh deposits. RBI has given the banks until 30 September to draw up a revival plan. The programme, known as the monitorable action plan (MAP), was a last-ditch effort by RBI to revive the distressed banks. If the co-operative banks under watch are unable to improve their positions by September, they may be asked to either shut down or merge with other banks. During this period, the operations of the banks and their business decisions will be scrutinised by special panels comprising top officials of RBI and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard)............

Read - Mint

QFIs can invest $1 b in MF debt schemes

......“In consultation with the Government of India (GoI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), it has now been decided to allow Qualified Foreign Investors (QFIs) to invest in Indian corporate debt securities and debt schemes of Indian mutual funds,”..........

Read - The Hindu

RBI asks banks not to give additional rate to NRI staff member

...."Accordingly, the discretion given to banks to allow the benefit of additional interest rate of one per cent per annum as available to bank's own staff on deposits under NRE/NRO accounts stands withdrawn," RBI said in a separate notification......

Read - TOI

Lack of required approval held back CBDT action on HSBC

......RBI sources said the banking regulator was looking into the matter. There is a process which the central bank has to follow in such matters. The role of RBI will be relevant only if it is found that Indian operations of foreign banks facilitated movement of funds from India, another official said.

Read - BS

RBI fiat on forward bookings upsets cashew exporters

Cashew exporters want Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to take up with the Finance Ministry the issue of a Reserve Bank of India circular on foreign currency forward bookings. The RBI circular to banks providing export credit said that all forward currency bookings by exporters and importers should fully be on deliverable basis. Any exchange gain from the forward booking, in case of cancellation of an export order, should not be passed on to the exporter.........

Read - The Hindu

Cheque fraud now comes at a higher price

....Taking a tough stand on those who issue cheques without sufficient balance in the bank, the Supreme Court said that the accused will have to undergo further imprisonment if compensation was not paid. The apex court in the case of R Mohan vs AK Vijay Kumar said that “deterrence can be infused into the order only by providing for a default sentence. If merely an order directing compensation is passed, it would be totally ineffective. It could be an order without any deterrence or apprehension of immediate adverse consequences in case of its non-observance,” .....

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