The Government is having a rethink on the proposal to grant autonomy to consistently profit-making public sector banks in several areas including recruitment, promotion, creation of posts and rural postings. According to officials of the Banking Division of the Ministry of Finance, there is an emerging view in the ministry that categorisation of this sort might have an adverse impact on banks which are not classified as “consistently profit-making”. Among other things, one of the dangers would be that it might affect the credit-worthiness of the weaker banks in the market, they said.

BJP hints at anti-Gowda vote

With talks between the UF and the Congress virtually a non-starter, and developments pointing towards a showdown in the Lok Sabha, the first big suspense in the on-going battle seemed to have ended with the BJP saying it would vote out the Deve Gowda Government. The BJP spokesperson, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, said, “As the principal Opposition, why should we save the Government?” putting to rest speculations it would abstain in the event of a trial of strength of the Government.

Draft report on fuel for power projects ready

A draft report, commissioned by the Union Power Ministry, has enumerated the principles for fuel supply agreements between independent power producers and the State electricity boards. The report, prepared by Nixon Hargrave, Devans and Doyle, along with the assistance of ICICI and Marston & Marston Incorporated, comes in the wake of four fast-track power projectsThe report has touched upon the issues which have caused immense delay in the finalisation of fuel contracts.