Banks are, we are always told, the ‘engines‘ that carry the loads of a nation’s economy to its correct destinations ! And, that bestows the bankers, the roles of the pathways – tracks , which enable every others to perform ! Now to begin with, as engines perform for what, and upto what, they are designed for, so exactly do our banks ! Banks too deliver to the extent they are planned to, as do those engines. We have to meticulously plan, and accordingly develop, our engines keeping their future tasks in mind, and this explains everything about our banks. The planners ought to know all about their product, thebank, its capacity to deliver whatever, and whoever, it is tasked to, its robustness to withstand all the ‘loads’ that it may require to carry to, or even, many a times, some additional ones. And these loads, just ponder, do/may include many that have nothing much to do with our economy ! Nevertheless we all agree that these ‘engines‘ once available to us must be made to be of our ‘optimum’ use, hence these ongoing additions in our banks’ roles are surely justified ! We all must be one on this in getting these ever ready ‘engines’ to maximize their performances. We always have a team of specialist engineers, experienced or otherwise, to ensure these engines work smoothly, as so must be true in case of our banks ! Banks are after all what that make possible the completion of the journey of national development. A full stop, really ? No, obviously not !
We can not afford to neglect what many others chose to neglect ! The tracks, bankers, get to carry the loads most, also suffer the most ! No one cares until a major accident happens. Even after those irreparable accidents, a little talks follow and soon forgotten ! Till of course another bigger ones happen again ! Unlike engines, the tracks used to be outdated, without proper maintenance ! They fail us because we fail them ! We simply neglect them forgetting the fact that these engines (our banks) would be unable to carry any load (various schemes), however strong they might be, without these properly maintained tracks, the bankers. It is worth reminding ourselves that it is these tracks that get blamed all the time whenever any mishap occurs despite the fact that many successful storylines are made by these very tracks, the bankers.
Now let us face some staight lines. Three things that matter most for any schemes,plans,yojnas, to have the desirable outcome from the banks are viability, sustainability & deliverability. The first, viability, is a must for even the first step ! For example, any move to waive off all bad loans, or such type of moves at very very mass level, are simply not viable, and hence certainly not desirable. A full stop there. Also must we have a full stop for all such politically impulsive ideas which make no senses ! Now the second, sustainability, is something our planners have the choices of flexibility here. A whole lot of field works are available to them as they may decide to prioritize, and accordingly have the resources to sustain them. And, sustain they must.
Last, but certainly not the least, deliverabilities ! This is what actually we all know asbankability ! And this is where we have to walk the talk. We plan everything, from deposit schemes to opening of new accounts with/without KYC, from loans for primary sectors to recovery of bad loans, from maximizing high value credits to minimizing NPAs, and the list goes on, but all depend upon their actual deliverabilities ! And getting this to materialize we require a dependable work force. As in case of the tracks here too we have to regularly be fully attentive to their maintenance ! One suggested idea may be to make these nationalized banks a little more ‘nationalized’, bringing them under Finance Ministry, converting all branches into FAC, Financial Assistance Centres, taking all unions along, with offering the employees all the benefits of Central Pay Commission, taking all existing or fresh programs directly to the doorsteps of one and all ! This will radically change the whole essence of government programmes,and believe it, be fully effective too. Expanding the roles requires an urgency here,unlike anywhere else, as checking corruption not being feasible, interdepartmental bungling and redtapism failing us shamelessly all the time. While all this may seem impractical, but this, combined with the digitalization, is what, perhaps, only perceivable option where Central Government can, with existing infrastructure without any additions, take all, as well as plan all, its schemes directly to the people, with no substantial extra burden/cost ! And, leaving the roles of banking to SBI & Associates, making it truly India’s Bank of International repute, and all existing/fresh private banks ! The tracks thus prepared may graduate all stake hoders /participants to make themselves true success stories all the time, getting all the loads to their correct destinations safely, and surely, and again, surely, a status that is a win win for all !
from uday kumar singh
