Apropos the report "Poll panel raises red flag on bank licence timing" (March 20), the Election Commission is right in questioning the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about the latter's hurry to seek bank licences for two of the 25 applicants. Even if the Election Commission approves the proposal, the subject qualifies for public interest litigation on three counts. First, it would be naive to believe that the two newly-licensed banks would add much to the financial inclusion. It is all the more true that the existing private players have hardly done anything towards this objective. The private sector banks are keen to shrink the size of the public sector banks by weaning away their plum clients. Second, when the banking regulator has taken more than a year to complete the process, the next two months would not add to the delay. Last, the granted licences could trigger public interest litigations due to the sensitivity of the issue and the whole set of parties (read RBI, new bank licensees and so on) could end up in the court.
K V Rao, Bangalore
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