The Hindu : Business : Banks told to seize the chance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 21, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Business

Business

Banks told to seize the chance

Ashok Dasgupta

Montek Singh Ahluwalia

NEW DELHI: Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Friday advised Indian banks to seize the “wonderful” opportunity arising from the global financial crisis by venturing into those areas which were hitherto dominated by foreign lending entities. In an informal chat with the media here on the ongoing economic crisis in the wake of the global downturn and the foreign banks’ aversion to providing credit to the industry, Mr Ahluwalia said: “It is a wonderful opportunity for Indian banks to occupy the space. These fellows [foreign banks] are broke at home”.

Following the global crisis, a number of foreign banks have tended to curtail their lending exposure in the wake of the credit crunch and other problems being faced by their parent entities overseas.

Mr Ahluwalia, however, pointed out that not all clients were affected by the credit crunch as it was mainly the middle-segment borrowers who were finding it tough to secure bank funds. “Good companies are now getting it [credit] normally. [The] thing is to get that into the middle segment...We are now asking them [banks] to lend. There are a lot of companies in the middle segment,” he said.

Stressing that the Government would increase Plan expenditure during the new fiscal year, Mr Ahluwalia observed that the major problem currently was that of perception and, therefore, it had to be impressed upon the banks that the fiscal stimulus packages would work. In particular, the fiscal and monetary measures already put in place by the Government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would have bearing on sectors such as infrastructure and construction and help improve the economic situation, he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business

News Update

Stories in this Section