Loan 'mela' comes at a time when red lights are flashing in RBI's FSR

The festive season is truly upon us. Banks have pitched their tents to offer credit to retail customers and small businesses from Thursday. The mela is the most ambitious one till date — the outreach camps will pan across 400 districts.

The idea behind the mela is that it will revive demand in a sluggish economy, and is inspired by “supply creates its own demand”. It may, however, not go according to the script imagined. 

The plot seems to have been lifted from Congressman Janardhan Poojary’s stint as the minister of state for finance during the prime ministerships of Indira Gandhi and