No to foreign banks

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has talked of bank reforms that will allow foreign banks to enter India ‘in a big way.’ “Once you have a fully owned subsidiary, we’ll allow you ‘a lot of’ freedom.” This will be a ‘near national’ treatment to the foreign banks, he has said, speaking in Washington. But why do we need this? Indians have already tasted the bitter fruits of the pro-US economic reforms introduced by Manmohan Singh in the form of daily tumbling rupee, anti-aam aadmi large-scale scams worth trillions of rupees, and US dollars deposited in foreign banks not brought back to India till date. India doesn’t need any bank reform but governance reforms in totality at the earliest in the all-round interest of the Indians, and not in the interest of any neta, babu, foreigners or foreign banks. 

- Hansraj Bhat, Mumbai (HBL)