Warrier's blog

Economic Times, March 26, 2013(Also read online comments)   Why high finance needs just one regulator Hema Ramakrishnan     Monday March 25, 2013, 04:48 AM Justice Bellur Narayanaswamy Srikrishna is known for his ability to complete any task entrusted to him within the deadline. That’s what the Chairman of the Financial Services Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) did on Friday when he handed over the report on recasting India ’s financial sector laws to finance minister P Chidambaram. The FSLRC’s core recommendation to have a unified financial regulatory agency to oversee all segments of the financial sector, barring banking and payments, will ruffle regulators who are bent on protecting their turfs. However, unified regulation makes eminent sense, especially when boundaries among financial products are getting blurred. A single agency, entrusted with micro prudential regulation, will reduce the chances of financial collapse and bring down systemic ...

Leveraging the debt office | Business Standard Like personal borrowings, if well managed and well-balanced between consumption and asset creation purposes, public debt will serve developing countries like India well. Presently we borrow for whatever purpose credit is forthcoming and spend tax payers’ money and windfall gains from sources like spectrum auction, sale of mining rights etc and divestment of holdings in public sector companies without any regard to the sources of funds or respect for national priorities. We borrow amounts as small as $300 million from abroad to fund microfinance when individuals in India can afford building monuments and houses worth much more than that and thousands of crores of rupees flow down the drain in celebrations. National level financial institutions talk about lending to small borrowers at interest rates as high as 25 to 30 per cent per annum while banks pay interest on deposits at 3.5 to 7.5 per cent per annum. The gravity of the situation is ...

Cobrapost counters RBI's attempt to defend banks in money laundering charge - Moneylife

Our railway network is a huge dustbin - Business Line Hindu Business Line, March 25, 2013 Letters Managing waste This refers to “Our railway network is a huge dustbin” ( Business Line , March 22). Even if made tongue in cheek, the suggestion to have a Cabinet Ministry of Litter and Garbage (L&G) with inter-Ministerial scope, funded by a tax, does indeed need to be taken seriously. While it may not result in the immediate induction of Rahul Gandhi into the Central Cabinet, it could address the everyday frustrations of the common man arising from L&G accumulation of all kinds. This is not just around the Railways’ property, but across the nation, on roadsides, in rivers, around places of worships, and so on, in addition to the shiploads of ‘waste’ generated in greater volumes each day by the use of substandard materials in industry, construction and services. Awareness of the kind the article suggests, if created in people’s minds by appropriate campaigns, as we...

Super-regulator for financial sector mooted | Business Standard Even before the full report is available, it seems appropriate to comment on the following report: “When the unified regulator, to be called the Unified Financial Agency (UFA), got some experience, the panel said, RBI should be merged with it. The panel suggested that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) be subsumed under UFA .” Comment: If the media has not got it wrong, the idea of creating a Unified Financial Agency for all financial regulators except RBI, truncating RBI by separating Public debt Management and keeping the agency doing that work(presumably with the same work force) in RBI premises, later UFA subsuming even RBI all give a feeling that the FSLRC had many masters to serve and in the eagerness to satisfy all, it has forgotten its...

Why is RBI rushing to defend banks exposed by Cobrapost? - Moneylife It is intriguing that RBI Deputy Governor Chakrabarty is giving a ‘mixed’ response on a vital issue. Large-scale Financial Inclusion drive is about much smaller accounts and actually, KYC norms should be more stringent in case of bigger accounts(both deposit and credit). Statements like ‘There would be always some black money in the system and we don’t require sting operation to show that’ are vague and do not make anyone wiser.

Chakrabarty downplays Cobrapost exposé | Business Standard My online comments: It is intriguing that RBI Deputy Governor Chakrabarty is giving a ‘mixed’ response on a vital issue. Large-scale Financial Inclusion drive is about much smaller accounts and actually, KYC norms should be more stringent in case of bigger accounts(both deposit and credit). Statements like ‘There would be always some black money in the system and we don’t require sting operation to show that’ are vague and do not make anyone wiser.

RBI without reserve Jan-March 2013 Point Zero The Enigma of Arrival The very first day at the new job can be a nerve-racking experience. A new job in a new place can only add to the uncertainty. M G Warrier (Ex-GM), Mumbai does a rapid recall After traveling in three trains for an aggregate period of 20 hours, early in the morning on 6 th September 1963, I got off the Ernakulam-Trivandrum train on the railway platform at Trivandrum . The previous day around 11 a.m. I had boarded the Mangalore-Madras mail at Badagara station, changed train at Shoranur in the afternoon and at Ernakulam at about 9 p.m. This I had to do as the track was broad gauge upto Ernakulam and meter gauge from Ernakulam to Trivandrum . Throughout that whole journey of around 450 kilometers, I was either standing or sitting on the floor of the train, caring for my steel trunk box which contained my valuables and clothes.  As instructed by my brother-in-law, who had worked in Trivan...

Our railway network is a huge dustbin - Business Line The suggestion to have a Cabinet Ministry of Litter and Garbage(L & G)  with inter-ministerial scope, funded a tax need to be taken seriously,  not for immediate induction of Rahul Gandhi into the Central Cabinet,  but for handling the underlying frustration of the common man arising  from L & G accumulation of all kinds, not just around Railway  property, but across the geographical area of the nation, on  roadsides, in rivers, around places of worships and so on, in addition  to the shiploads of ‘waste’ generated faster by use of substandard  material in industry, construction and service.  Living in Kerala, I find the crossfire among political leaders, state  government authorities and municipal bodies, media and enlightened  social workers on the method of handling waste. Awareness of the kind  the author of the article has exhibited through his concern not to ...

VITALINFO: Doctors to ask RBI to make coins blind-friendly : CHENNAI: At least two ophthalmic associations will petition the finance department and the  Reserve Bank of India  telling them that the c...

M G Warrier’s My Page A monthly bulletin from M G Warrier incorporating select published letters/articles (and some stray thoughts based on what he read/saw and wrote during the month). Mailed during the fourth week of every month. Please send your responses and views to mgwarrier@rediffmail.com Vol III, No 3, March 2013 M G Warrier, MLR-116-B, Mangalam Lane , SASTAMANGALAM-695010 (9349319479) Dear Reader  Links to articles and important comments are posted at the blog as and when they are published. Those esteemed readers who have difficulty in accessing blog can contact mgwarrier@rediffmail.com Regards M G Warrier M G Warrier March 20, 2013 The following articles were published during February-March, 2013 (Till March 20, 2013) Wage Revision in Banking Sector, March 2013, Business Manager, HR Magazine from Alwar, Rajastan Succession plans in India need a makeover, March 14, 2013, Moneylife.in Budget 2013-14, Februa...

Government says not issued any guidelines on CSR spending yet - Moneylife Earlier the corporates and the rich understand CSR and act, the better for them also.

VITALINFO: Lend a big hand, RBI : There has rarely been a more apposite hour for Duvvuri Subbarao to do more than the due.  Rating agency Standard & Poor’s said on Frida...

VITALINFO: My View on "Lend a big hand, RBI" : This comment is not directed to RBI (RBI knows its job), but to RBI-watchers who get carried away by observations like this from rating ag...

Business Line, March 18, 2013 Letters Pension scheme This refers to the report “Retirement age raised to 60 for new recruits” ( Business Line , March 16). It is intriguing that the Kerala Finance Minister has proposed raising the retirement age of a category of employees who are yet to join the service at a time when his government is struggling for existence. This is likely to be interpreted as a gimmick to divide opinion and divert attention from crucial issues. The ‘innocent’ omission of the relevant proposal while delivering the Budget Speech makes the motives murkier. M. G. Warrier e-mail (This article was published on March 17, 2013)   Unedited version  of the above letter: March 16, 2013 The Editor Hindu Business Line Letters Kerala pension age This refers to the report “Retirement age raised to 60 for new recruits” (March 16). Business Line is one of the few newspapers which did not use the words ‘pension age...