Accounting for geography

Having heard all sorts of stories about chartered accountants (CA) with political affiliations on boards of state-run banks who end up affecting the performance of the banks concerned, P J Nayak, chair of the committee to recommend bank board reforms, wrote to the Reserve Bank of India. He sought a list of these CA directors along with the addresses of residence. The data startled him. About 75 per cent of the CAs on public sector bank boards came from Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon. If Lucknow were added, the figure went up to 85 per cent. "Clearly, we have a paucity of CAs elsewhere in the country," Nayak quipped at a banking conference organised by think tank Icrier.