Retail loans under watch

This refers to ‘RBI right in flagging growing retail loan risks’ (October 13). Since retail loans now reportedly account for 32 per cent of non-food credit, the RBI, apart from issuing warnings, may be fully justified to audit the retail loan portfolio of banks and NBFCs which have recorded an aggressive growth therein.

The central bank’s deep concern may be attributed to the fact that banks apparently have been going after the low-hanging fruits while being more cautious in lending to the nation’s industrial sector over the last two years. It may be quite pertinent to recall that the RBI Governor had given similar warning to banks in May this year, asking regulated entities not to evergreen their retail loans or hide the stress in their books.

SK Gupta

New Delhi

Vested interests

The RBI’s concern about the growing retail loan risks is understandable and, perhaps, the central bank may be contemplating some stronger advisories on the subject to institutions regulated under the RBI Act and the Banking Regulation Act.

But the financial system, including the institutions responsible for mobilisation of funds and credit delivery, is being manipulated by vested interests of diverse denominations. A case study of the goings on in the management of government finances and the cooperative sector in Kerala will give an idea of bending and breaking of laws and rules even as supervisors and regulations remain helpless spectators.

MG Warrier

Mumbai

Revisit industrial policy

The main objectives of the industrial policy of the government are to maintain a sustained growth in productivity, enhance gainful employment, optimum utilisation of human resources, attain international competitiveness. The challenges facing the PLI scheme is that there is no common set of parameters to understand the value addition by companies, there is no way to compare two different schemes and there is no centralised database to gauge all deliverables. The government should take steps to overcome the challenges and revisit the industrial policy.

S Muthulakshmi

Virudhunagar, TN

Big screen magic

Apropos ‘98% of Indians still prefer theatres for cinematic magic’ (October 13), it is heart warming that millennials and GenZ, like others, are also enamoured by the big screen magic, though they are flooded with new age entertainment streaming channels of the OTT kind. However, the news doesn’t bring much cheer to the cinema theatres in general, because the preference of the GenZ is for premium screens like IMAX. In these circumstances, the survival of even the remaining single screen theatres in the country becomes difficult, which may not be good news for the cine industry for whom their films can be successful only if patronised by both urban and rural viewers.

Kosaraju Chandramouli

Hyderabad

Hunger index faulty

That India has slipped four notches to 111 out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) and that it has fared worse than Pakistan and Bangladesh make a mockery of statistics as a discipline. The economy of Pakistan, in particular, is in dire straits and the whole world knows about it. How could it be better than India in the hunger index? India has rightly faulted the methodology of calculating GHI.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Chennai

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