oppn parties Breaking: Will There Be Mega-Mergers Of PSU Banks In A Couple Of Days?

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  • 5 killed and 18 injured as the under-construction roof of the Hanuman temple in Parbhani in Maharashtra collapses
  • Hindus in Bangladesh hold torch marches in Dhaka and other parts of the country to protest against alleged government inaction after vandalism at temples and hitting Hindu dieties with shoes during a procession
  • LIC issues notice to Suruchi Sangha (formerly controlled by TMC minister Aroop Biswas) to vacate 23 cottahs of land in Kolkata's upscale New Alipore area, which the club has allegedly poached on to hold its annual Durga Puja, within a month
  • Centre bans 16 fixed drug combinations, including painkillers, anti-biotics and skin fromulations, over safety issues
  • TMC news: Aroop Biswas and Firhad Hakim, once considered the right and left hands of Mamata Banerjee, now fall out of favour. Biswas issued showcause for writing s debit-freeze letter to HDFC Bank blocking party funds and Hakim removed from disciplinary committee
  • From Tarakeshwar in Bengal, PM Modi gives a call for 'new Bengal' and says the period of 'cut money' has ended and work has started on stalled projects in the state with the BJP government taking decisions at 'lightening speed'
  • A trader in Noida found a Rs 25l akh diamond in a Panna mine registered in his wife's name
  • 22.7 lakh to sit for NEET retest today
  • FIFA World Cup: Brazil get into the groove, score 3 against Haiti for a 3-0 win
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  • ICC T20 Women's World Cup: India to play South Africa today
  • Nations Cup Women's Hockey: India thrash Chile 6-0 in the semifinals to set up a clash with New Zealand in the final
  • 3rd ODI versus Afghanistan: Yasashvi Jaiswal (110 not out) and Prasidh Krishna (5-23) shine as India (224 for 1) beat Afghanistan (218) by 9 wickets in the 3rd and final ODI to sepp the series 3-0
PM Modi celebrates International Yoga Day with more than 40000 people from Red Road in Kolkata /////// NEET re-test today with NTA saying it is committed to conduct it smoothly
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Breaking: Will There Be Mega-Mergers Of PSU Banks In A Couple Of Days?

By Sunil Garodia

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

A freelance journalist and researcher, Pratim Ranjan Bose (@pratimbose), has tweeted that all PSU bank officers have been asked by the government to remain available for duty on Saturday, 10th August and Sunday, 11th August. This, he says, points to a major disruption in the banking sector. He says there might be a merger of PSU banks to create 4 or 5 mega entities on the lines of China. He also reports that the PSU bank chiefs are having a meeting with the Department of Financial Services under the Finance Ministry, after having met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman a couple of days ago. He also reports that tests have been carried out to synchronize the core banking CBS systems of which there are two kinds in use. The SBI and some other banks use TCS developed BaNCS while the Bank of Baroda and some others use Finacle developed by Infosys.

If this report turns out to be true and a major disruption in the form of mega-mergers is carried out, the government would have made its first big move in the financial services sector. Indian PSU banks have eroded most of their capital due to bad loans. The funds needed for recapitalization are huge and unavailable. Hence, merging them to form big entities will solve many problems, provided economies of scale are availed, multiple branches are closed down and staff strength whittled down to the optimum required. These banks will be able to compete with their global peers and not shy away from global deals. If the banking system is cleaned and if banks start lending again, the economy might yet recover from the debilitating state it is in now.