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TOP BRASS

"Involvement of corporate in a big way for a quicker solution to infrastructure needs will drive the employment of both the urban poor as well as landless villagers and at the same time ensure faster growth of the economy and introduction of agricultural reforms ,are two measures that could mitigate soaring unemployment in India". These views were expressed by dynamic and dashing Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) TS Narayansami. In an exclusive interview Narayansami told the "whispersinthecorridors.com" that the Bank has already announced its plans to open branches in New Zealand and Vietnam. Though, the IOB cannot boast of a large network of branches abroad like a few public sector banks, its operations are conducted in a sound manner for the past two years, he said. According to Narayansami, "the net NPA (non performing asset) in overseas operations has been NIL. A more important aspect of bank's progress is its ability to improve profitability consistently each year, thereby ensuring internal accretion which, in turn, has improved the Tier 1 capital, without accessing the capital market after September 2003."
In actual terms, the gross NPA has reduced from Rs.1423 crore as of September 2005 to Rs.1388 crore in March 2006 and further to Rs.1219 crore as of September 2006, he informed. Here goes his interview

1) What are your expansion plans in India and abroad?
Reply: The Bank has plans to add 30-40 branches every year in the domestic market. The Bank has already announced its plans to open branches in New Zealand and Vietnam. Depending upon opportunities in the overseas markets, the Bank may expand further.

2) In what way IOB is different from other private sector banks that too operate and have network of branches abroad?

Reply: In our view, the comparison should be with other Public Sector Banks having a large network of branches abroad rather than with private sector banks (both old & new generation) which do not have any significant presence overseas.
Though IOB cannot boast of a large network of branches abroad like a few public sector banks, its operations are conducted in a sound manner and for the past two years, the Net NPA in overseas operations has been NIL.

3) Is IOB geared up to meet their challenge?

Reply: Large network of branches and an increasing loyal clientele have been increasing bank's share of low cost funds as well as the asset base. A more important aspect of bank's progress is its ability to improve profitability consistently each year, thereby ensuring internal accretion which, in turn, has improved the Tier 1 capital, without accessing the capital market after Sep 2003. Consequent improvement in capital adequacy has helped the bank remain adequately prepared to meet Basle II norms.

4) Can you suggest two measures so that economic growth in India gets a fillip, while creating jobs for unemployed people?

Reply: Real GDP growth was at 9.20% in Q2 FY07 as against 8.40% in Q2 FY06. Thrust comes from services and manufacturing which grew by 10.9% and 11.3% respectively against 10% and 8.1% during the same period last year.

Though the lower growth in Agriculture at 1.7% in Q2 FY07 against 3.4% in Q1 FY 07 could be attributed to poor spread of monsoon rains, the policy priorities are to increase both productivity per hectare and the productivity per worker, while simultaneously seeking to foster as many non-farm jobs as possible with a view to absorbing the shift of worker from low productivity employment in agriculture to more productive employment in the non-farm sector.

In my view, the approach should be two-pronged. In order to increase productivity, more arid lands should be brought under cultivation and simultaneously, through appropriate land reform measures, these could be distributed to landless/jobless villagers.

Secondly, level of India's infrastructure facilities, specifically Port, Road and Power sectors, is far below its peers in the emerging economies. Involvement of corporate in a big way for a quicker solution to infrastructure needs will drive the employment of both the urban poor as well as landless villagers and at the same time ensure faster growth of the economy.

5) What steps have you taken to ensure that there were no frauds in Forex collection services?

Reply: Forex collection services are just like any other domestic service, except the involvement of foreign correspondent or an Exchange company in the process. The Bank has systems in place which addresses the operational risk in such processes.

6) What steps you took to arrest the soaring ratio of non-performing assets?

Reply: Ratio of Gross Non-performing assets has been on a decline since March 2006. From 4.85% as of Sep 2005, the decline has been consistent at 3.43% as of March 2006 and to 2.96% as of Sep 2006. In actual terms, the Gross NPA has reduced from Rs.1423 cr as of Sep 2005 to Rs.1388 cr in March 2006 and further to Rs.1219 cr as of Sep 2006.

Among many steps taken to arrest decline of asset quality, significant ones are the measures take to arrest slippages. To this end, information system has been introduced to track sub-standard accounts in order to upgrade them at the earliest. At the same time, the Bank has targeted recovery of at least Rs.1 cr per day in the last two years, which has helped improve its position as shown above.

7) Can you list three major achievements of IOB?

(a) Major achievement of the Bank has been its ability to bring down the cost of its deposits and other borrowings consistently despite market trends to the contrary and at the same time step up credit deployment. The former was possible due to a stiff policy on accepting deposits over card rates. The bank has also been consistently successful in raising market borrowings at very cost effective rates by tapping the market at the right time.

(b)Second achievement has been the segmentation of branches into Resources centre, Profit Centre and Priority Credit centre, which has helped the branches to remain focused in tapping the potential subsisting in their respective areas of command.

(c)Third, achievement has been the product profile of the Bank in terms of what it could offer to the clients. Various insurance products 0(both life and non-life) tailor-made for the bank's clients has helped boost the non-interest revenue for the bank, while at the same time contributing to the low cost funds by way of new savings accounts.

1977 batch empanelment meeting on December 16 !
Meeting for the empanelment of 1977 batch IAS officers to the rank of Additional Secretary in the Government of India is expected to take place on December 16.

Will RAW and IB chiefs get extension?
Looking into the mad rush for the posts of the RAW and the IB chief, falling vacant shortly, the GoI is understood to be contemplating to give one year extension to the present incumbents to both the posts. Will it materialize?.

Hidden understanding over issue of Muslims !
Political circles are agog with rumors of hidden understanding between the BJP and the Congress over issue of Muslims because it is these two parties who would be the main beneficiaries in the elections on the controversy in question.

Chandra Pal to get change this month !
Chandra Pal is likely to be appointed Secretary of an independent department in the Government of India this month end. 1972 batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer Chandra Pal is presently posted in the Planning Commission.

Is the wife of ex-RBI Governor so powerful ?
Is the wife of a former RBI Governor powerful and influential in the corridors of power ?.Rumour mill says that the old lady has direct access to the Prime Minister. Who is she ? Guess.

Sekhon to return Gujarat
Swatantra Sekhon is returning to the parent Gujarat cadre from central deputation. Sekhon who is presently posted in the Ministry of Fertilisers belongs to 1974 batch IAS.

Seven 1975 batch IAS to be empanelled !
Seven 1975 batch IAS officers are likely to be empanelled to the rank of Additional Secretary in the Government of India during the review this month.

Is Rajasthan a poor state ?
Who says Rajasthan is a poor state ?.Newly constructed office of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia has cost the exchequer Rs 150 million and the private firm to provide security to the office will cost Rs 10 million a month.

Pakistan High Commissioner to take charge this week
Pakistan's high commissioner-designate in India Shahid Malik will take charge only this week.

1973 batch IPS frozen
1973 batch IPS has been frozen for central deputation in the Government of India.

New post of JS Culture
A new post of Joint Secretary Culture in the Government of India is being filled up next month.

Singh gets extension
Uttar Pradesh State Election Commissioner A P Singh has been granted two years extension in tenure.
( We said this early this month )

Resignations in NHAI
After DGM (Technical) T Pratap , one more major blow to NHAI, one of its senior regular officer, P Pathak, GM (Finance) has reportedly resigned. Some more officers are also in line to resign. Why so?.

Singh re-instated in Kerala
IG Crime Branch in Kerala Rishi Raj Singh has been re-instated in Kerala.

FORUM

Honest and polite person need not be a good administrator

The tenure of Ms Kherawalla as Chairman will be remembered long by the IRS for the following reasons:
i) She was honest to the core.
(ii) During her tenure, the CBDT involved herself only with transfer and posting and not with any policy decisions to augment revenue.
(iii) The greatest corruption racket flourished under her in the transfer and posting which has also been indicated in a recent CAT order, yet no concrete action was taken.
iv) She was polite but people below she allowed her subordinates to misbehave with senior IRS officers.
iv) The IRS as a service became an inward looking service, without any vision.
Moral of the story: A honest and polite person need not be a good administrator.

Sarathi

God save the department

If the present transfer policy formulated by the present Chairman and member personnel continues, this will continue to happen. God save the Department. All outstanding and self respecting officers will leave one day.

Poonam

State Services are equally important

Even though 40% of the posts in the All India Services are filled from the State Services meant for Central Deputation, no officer promoted from the State Services are found on Central Deputation with the Central Govt Departments. The suggestion by Adarsh should be preceded by this step first.

R V Nathan

Aaj Ki Aawaz

Is it customary in Congress to behave in such a way????
They don't have to go overboard to show that it's a day to be gay!!!

Sonia must be pretty embarrassed at the sycophantic show put up for her birthday!!! For a Lady who prefers to be private and keep things simple this sure must be an embarrassment!!! But , then she's pretty used to this embarrassment!!! Anyway Madam belated Happy Birthday to you……. on such a day please do cage some of the inhabitants in the Congress Zoo!!! Confucius says, " Sycophants are the best fair weather friends"!!!

How will he extract the Royal foot from the Royal gob???
Extraction will be a difficult and painful job!!

Amrinder boasts of his Lambhi Rally…… but ask him to stand from Lambhi and Amrinder does a lightening disappearing act!!! Punjab Police's dandaa, rented crowds, famous song and dance troupe in attendance, paraglider and helicopter show and still Amrinder could manage just a fraction of the attendance that Badal was able to muster for his Moga rally. If the Rally is any indicator than Amrinder is in for an even bigger drubbing than that is being projected!!!! And the language this dolt uses shows that he's no ex Raja……. he's just an ordinary overwieght street brawler!!!

Laloo wants the Media not to call him a joker or buffoon,
What can the Media do when he himself talks and acts like a character from Loony Toon (cartoon)!!!

He gained his popularity by buffoonery!!! He buffooned his way out of sticky situations!!! He was even called by IIM (A) because they mistook his buffoonery for deft Management!!! But now Laloo wants to rid himself of his Buffoon Number One title!!! Someone should tell him that this title is for keeps!!! And if he is in contention for PM's post, Laloo's Buffoon Title God Willing will be one of the main reasons for his losing out ultimately!!!

Are Muslims the real citizens of this Country…. seems so!!!
To please Muslims this Sarkaar is bending backwards and even stooping low!!!

Project Woo Muslims is on!!!! Any step that this Government takes is evaluated on its Mulsim impact!!!! Poor Manmohan ….. he's so puzzled that he went to the extent of saying that Mulsims have the right to jump queue and stand in the front at the sops Buffet table!!! Of course later he retracted the statement!!! There is a new haves and have nots gap building up….. majority minority who have the Sarkaar doing everything to please them and on the other hand the Majority and other minorities who the Sarkaar behaves as they do not exist!!!

Big Bluffmaster sings ' punarr janam hoe toh hoe Ganga ke tatt parr'!!!
But he forgets to add ' magar janam ke baad Mumbai mein ho merra ghar'!!!!

What a bluffmster this man is!!!! He talks of roads and electricity in UP….. about the opportunities…… about the happiness…… seems he thinks that UP is the CM's or Amar's bunglows in UP!!! Just go into the villages in UP...... UPites sing….. punnar jannam ho toh ho UP se far, jaha na padhe insaan ko Sarkaar ki roz maar!!!!

Bharat Kumar

20 CPSEs to be profitable
About 20 loss-making Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) would become profitable in a year or two. Among the companies Heavy Engineering Corporation, Hindustan Antibiotics, Eastern Coalfields, NTC, HMT Bearings and Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited.

AERA on the cards
An Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) is proposed to be set up which would look into a host of issues.

Behuria is VP of WLPGA
Sarthak Behuria CMD of the Indian Oil Corporation has been elected Vice-President of the World LPG Gas Association.

Munda is TVNL MD
G N Munda has been appointed MD of the TVNL in Jharkhand.

Nandkumar is MD of TELK
P.T. Nandakumar former AIG has been appointed Managing Director of the State public sector Transformers and Electricals Kerala Limited (TELK).