Although final licensing may still be some time away, there is much excitement in Dilli over the prospect of granting new banking licences
Although final licensing may still be some time away, there is much excitement in Dilli over the prospect of granting new banking licences. With corporate majors like Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra, AV Birla and L&T among those publicly hopeful of entering the banking sector, the suspense is naturally high. Industrial houses have long waited to enter (or rather re-enter) the banking sector and this could then be their moment.
But there is still an air of uncertainty about what kind of and whether at all the corporates will get RBI's nod.
Apparently while the finance ministry is in favour of granting licences to them, the RBI seems to harbor some reservations. At the moment, the ministry is of the view that corporates should be granted bank licences if the bank is an independent entity. The RBI fears that in allowing licences to corporate houses, some may be tempted to divert funds from the banks to their other operations. Hopefully, an agreement will be reached soon.
Censoring dilemmaWhy have censor boards at all when just about any nervous government abrogates that right to itself? The controversy over Aarakshan, Prakash Jha's film on the prickly subject of reservations, had Dilli pondering over the ban on the film in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh (incidentally, UP and Punjab have elections due early next year).
These would have been joined by many more states had Jha not agreed to edit out some 'objectionable' material from the film before its release, though the Censor Board had already given the all-clear.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court stepped in and the governments of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh decided that the film was not really a threat to the social order and allowed its screening. But the 'official' censor board now faces an existential dilemma.
