<b>Letters:</b> The accountability question

This refers to Debashis Basu's column "Hail the PPP banking model!" (Irrational Choice, February 3). The writer has beautifully narrated the plight of state-owned banks and that too in the hands of the largest shareholder (read Government of India). His public-private-partnership banking model has not referred to another ominous fact between public sector banks (PSBs) and private sector banks. India Inc has accounts with PSBs just for the sake of it, that is, to channel routine government transactions. Their other creamy business has been passed on to private banks. This is, of course, purely a commercial decision. But the big question is: how come PSBs are allowing India Inc to take away the creamy business from their books? As the writer has put it, what about the accountability of top management in PSBs? Isn't "irresponsibility" still a small word to explain the callousness of executives at state-owned banks? The Indian Banks Association has become a mute spectator to all this when it could have reported on these trends that would help alert the PSBs.

The writer has also mentioned HDFC Bank's small exposure to Kingfisher Airlines. The truth is that HDFC Bank is not a part of the consortium of 14 lenders. Otherwise, the consortium has all the who's who as lenders to Kingfisher. Do we still need to check the credit appraisal expertise of Indian banks?

K V Rao Bangalore

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