Government sponsored schemes were routed through these banks' branches. The granting of credit through these government sponsored schemes to generate self-employment and income for the family was a laudable initiative. This also to a great extent freed the rural masses from being strangled by local money lenders who lent at high rates of interest. That these directed lendings later on became large-scale non-performing assets (NPAs) for the banking sector is a different story.
Nationalisation also opened up avenues for large-scale employment. An army of educated people found career opportunities. If these early employees in banks were drilled with a sense of responsibility and customer service, the story could have been far different. Job security was assured. Emoluments were the same for performers and laggards. With new generation banks coming in, customers had a choice and many moved their loyalties to these new entities. The steady loss of business to these newbies did not act as a wake-up call to the nationalised bank as job security and steady emoluments helped continue the lackadaisical approach.
With the new generation banks moving into the hinterland and judicious use of technology, the importance of nationalised banks will diminish. The government also seems to be serious in stemming the rot. One merger has happened. More are in the pipeline.
K V Premraj, Mumbai
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
To read the full story, Subscribe Now at just Rs 249 a month
Already a subscriber? Log in
Subscribe To BS Premium
₹249
Renews automatically
₹1699₹1999
Opt for auto renewal and save Rs. 300 Renews automatically
₹1999
What you get on BS Premium?
-
Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app.
-
Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them.
Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006.
Preferential invites to Business Standard events.
Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more.
Need More Information - write to us at assist@bsmail.in