C O N T E N T S - CBOO€¦ · agency in Devanahalli branch 9. At RPC layout Branch, all systems are old, elite customers are moving out, CLSB cheques are returned without reasons,

Officers’ Voice, June 2017 1

EditorEkanath Baliga

Asso. EditorG. Raghuraman

Satish Shetty

MembersH.S. Vishwanath

Advisor T.R. Bhat

Printed by:M. Rajesh Dange

Codeword Process & PrintersFalnir, Mangalore - 575 001

Licensed to Post Under License MNG/128/2015-17

& SK/MNG/WPP/7

Edited and Published byEkanath Baliga

on behalf of the Owners : Corporation Bank Officers’

Organisation (Regd.)106, Lobo Prabhu Court

Light House Hill Road, Mangalore - 575 001

EditorEkanath Baliga

Asso. EditorSatish Shetty

MembersH.S. Vishwanath

K.B. PrasadY. Sudhindra

Printed by:M. Rajesh Dange

Codeword Process & PrintersFalnir, Mangalore - 575 001

Edited and Published byEkanath Baliga

on behalf of the Owners : Corporation Bank Officers’

Organisation (Regd.)106, Lobo Prabhu Court

Light House Hill Road, Mangalore - 575 001 e-mail: [email protected] Visit us @ our website:www.cboo.org

Founder Editor : Sri T.R. Bhat

Registered with RNI, Delhi Regn. No. KARENG/2005/14831

Licensed to Post Under License MNG/128/2015-17 & SK/MNG/WPP/7

The hung necks and pale faces of Corp Bankers, as seen in May, 2016 have changed in May, 2017. The hung necks have straightened with confidence and the pale faces have turned glee with rosy cheeks. After recording a first time loss in its 111 years' history in March, 2016 (Rs.506.48 crore), the Bank has recorded a respectable Net Profit for the year ended March, 2017(Rs. 561.21 cr.). The waters cruised for the last 12 months were not of ease and smoothness. Still, the results announced for the last fiscal proved - Corp Bank could do it.

The Bank has registered positivity in several operational areas. To quote a few:

• Deposits registered a modest growth of 7.50% reaching Rs.220559.62 crore (2016 – 205170.84 cr.). Average deposits increased better at 9.20%.

• CASA reached 26.47% (Average 21.47%) which is a commendable figure, though not very good.

• Satisfying growth had been in Savings Bank (Rs. 39743.60 cr. / 28.77% increase) and Current Accounts (Rs.18630.76 cr. /27.99% increase) mostly attributable to demonetization.

• Total Income (Rs.22561.78 cr./6.69% growth), Interest Spread (2.12%) and Operating Profit

(Rs. 4439.53 cr. /43.44% increase) have all shown positive movement.

But the challenges ahead are still daunting – most importantly:

• Absence of overall growth is the first challenge. Total Business grew only by 4.46% (Rs. 345493.08 to Rs. 360916.41 – 4.46%) which cannot be deemed as even satisfactory. However, we may satisfy ourselves looking around – ‘We are not alone.’

• Advances remained almost static (Rs.140322.24 to Rs.140356.79 – 0.02%).

• NPAs continue to haunt our Balance Sheet (bottom line) and the credit portfolio. Gross NPAs stood at Rs.17045.22 crore (11.70%) as against Rs.14544.25 crore (9.98%) last year (Net NPAs – Rs.11692.42 cr. at 8.33% as against Rs.9160. 40 cr. at 6.53% last).

• This has resulted in erosion of our earnings through provisioning which has increased from Rs.3601.50 cr. to Rs. 3878.32 cr. this year.

While we can surely pat our backs in respect of positive achievements, we have to concentrate more to overcome the challenges.

420 Vol 35 - 12 June, 2017

Officers’ Voice, June 2017 2Officers’ Voice, June 2017 2

OV

Page No.

CBOO News ................................................... 3

AIBOC News ................................................. 11

Balasubramanian Foundation ...................... 17

Achievements ................................................. 18

Retirements .................................................... 19

Circular Round Up ........................................ 22

Miscellany ..................................................... 25

Class Room ................................................... 29

Health Watch ................................................. 30

In Lighter Vein ............................................... 32

C O N T E N T S

• With the hopes of positive movements in the economy, Bank needs to grow without compromising on quality and safety.

• We must improve our credit portfolio, as propagated already, more into retail and MSME. Though Agriculture is an area of priority, the recent reckless and unreasonable target oriented increases, leading to fraudulent exposures and misuse of delegation, shall caution us to seek a controlled growth in the area.

• Larger exposures shall be dissuaded for some more time except ‘A’ grade borrowers.

• The thrust given to Recovery shall continue with further impetus. Recovery teams shall further be strengthened and streamlined for improving the results.

• Most importantly, Bank shall come out of the Finacle blues at the earliest, enabling more concentration on banking business.

On the flipside, strengthening internal capabilities shall be our other important priority. Manpower comes first in the list. An illogical, non-existent, computer generated surplus manpower concept has been haunting the Bank for the last 15 months. Bank needs to come out of this fiction. Branches/offices have been suffering due to absence of supervisory personnel:

• Substantial single officer branches have not been provided with second officer.

• Branches with good growth as also with good potential for growth have not been provided with additional officer.

• Officers in controlling offices have been operating under pressure to perform multiple roles thereby weakening the control mechanisms – providing scope for mismanagement at several branches.

• Strengthening of inspection function has not yet materialized at the expected levels due to rationing of scant man-days among

branches without actual and need-based assessment.

• Most importantly, current year will witness difficulties in providing relievers to Scale I officers – transferred or promoted further adding to the woes of the officers.

There are many more – known to everyone; but invisible to the unwilling to accept and act on reality. We have to dispense the notion –‘staff is a cost!’ In a service industry, it is an investment in resources. Though a second highest, Staff Expenses constituted just 7.98% in 2016-17 (7.61% last). Though clerical shortage too is overtly visible, officers have been doubling their role at almost all instances of non-availability of sub-ordinate personnel (which has further strained the supervisory resources).

Collectively, we all must gather our wits and tread steady steps further to drive the Bank back to safer zone. The red in the Balance Sheet has obliterated; the healthy pink shall improve and early. To reiterate our earlier resolve in May, 2016 – TOGETHER, WE CAN.

A calf can find its mother among a thousand kine. Good and evil done returns and whispers, ‘ I am thine.’ - Panchatantra


CBOO News

BRANCH VISITS

KOCHI

President, Ekanath Baliga, General Secretary, Satish Shetty along with Zonal Chairman, S Venkideshwaran and Zonal Secretary, Geo Raj G visited Palakkad, Kalpathy, Kannambra, Kodumbu, Kanjikode, Thrissur - Main branches.

Members expressed various problems faced by them due to migration – especially delay in EOD, customer dissatisfaction, lack of responses from Help Desk and operational problems.

- Geo Raj G, Zonal Secretary

BENGALURU - SOUTH

1. On 18th April, President, Ekanath Baliga, Circle Secretary, N S Krishnaraj, Zonal Chairman, Y S Anand and Area Secretary P. C. Kamath visited Brahmanipura, Rampura, Mandya Bommanayakanahalli Halli, Mylnayaka Hosahalli, Abbur, Nagavara and Channapatna.

2. Devaraja B P, Deputy General Secretary, B. Swarnageetha, Zonal Secretary, Area Secretaries, T M Vijay Kumar and P. A. Utham visited Kanakapura, T.Bekuppe, Kabbalu, Harohalli, Konanakunte, Uttarahalli and Padmanabhanagar.

3. G Raghuraman, Vice President, Deputy Zonal Secretary, Vasudeva Nayak and Narasimhamurthy Activist visited Jigani, Anekal, Attibele, Chandapura, Muthanallur, Bommasandra, Bandenallasandra, Electronic City, Hosur Road, Madivala and H.S.R Layout.

4. S Prakash Rao, Secretary Benevolent Fund, Nagaraju, Area Secretary and S. Tyagaraj, Activist visited Basavangudi, Jayanagar, Srinagar, Chamrajpet, Mysore Main Road, Girinagar, Banashankari and N.R.Colony.

5. On 19th Ekanath Baliga, President, Satish Shetty, General Secretary, N Vijayan, Assistant General Secretary, N S Krishnaraj, Circle Secretary, W S Anand, Zonal Chairman, GKV Subba Rao and B. Swarnageetha, Zonal Secretaries and Mrinal,

Area Secretary visited North Zonal Office, Retail Hub -North, Forex Hub, STC, South Zonal Office and M G Road branch. They interacted with both the Zonal Heads, members and the participants in STC training.

6. G Raghuraman, Vice President, Vasudev Nayak, Deputy Zonal Secretary and P C Kamath, Area Secretary visited Akshay Nagar, Arekeregate, RBI layout, J P Nagar, Sarakki Layout, BTM Layout, Jal Bhavan, HSR Layout and Jayanagar 9th Block.

7. Devaraj B P, Joint General Secretary, Area Secretaries TM Vijay Kumar, Niranjan and Activist S. Tyagaraj visited Kumbalgodu, Gopahalli, Bidadi, Ramanagar, Lead Bank, Kutagal, Bilagumba, Ajjanahalli and Bannikuppe.

8. S Prakash Rao, Secretary Benevolent Fund, Vani R, Zonal Lady Secretary, P A Utham and Devakanth Pawar Area Secretaries visited Shantinagar J C Road, NT Road, City, S C Road, Shivaji Nagar and Cantonment branches.

The main issues raised by the members were:

1. Shortageofofficersandclerks

2. Umpteen problems faced by Finacle branches; inadequate handholding support

3. Need for renovation of Shanthinagar branch

4. Need for supplying new and upgraded systems before migration of Branches.

- B Swarnageetha, Zonal Secretary

BENGALURU - NORTH

1. Satish Shetty, General Secretary, N Vijayan, Assistant General Secretary, GKVS Rao, Zonal Secretary and Srikanthan, Area Secretary visited Vijipura, Kolar, KGF Andersonpet, KGF Robertson, Mulbagilu, Thimmaravathanahalli and Bangarpet on 18th April.

2. K B Prasad, Joint General Secretary, Mallikarjuna, Saravanan and Munivenkatappa, Area Secretaries visited Devanahalli, Haarohalli, Karehalli, Melekote, Tubagere, Dargojaganahalli, Doddaballapura, Doddabelevangala and Kanaswadi.

3. B Sridhar, Joint General Secretary, Surendra

The just receives insults and in turn offers flowers. – Rabindranath Tagore


G, Deputy Zonal Secretary, Pasupathy K R and Vijay Kumar B R, Area Secretaries visited Pavagada, Madhugiri, Sira, Kestur, Koratagere, Muddalinganahalli and Nelamangala branches.

4. Y Sudhindra, Treasurer, Ekanath B and Biju, Area Secretaries visited Kunigal, Turuvekere, Tiptur, Halkurke, Gubbi and Tumkur branches.

5. On 19th April, Y Sudhindra, Treasurer, C Gopalaiah, Deputy Zonal Secretary, Madhusudhan and Veeresh Hanugodimath, Area Secretaries visited Rajajinagar, Basaveshwarnagar, Kamakshipalya, Mahalakshmi Layout, Nagarbhavi, Magadi Road, Chandra Layout, Vijayanagar, RPC Layout and Channenahalli.

6. B Sridhar, Joint General Secretary, Surendra G, Deputy Zonal Secretary, Munivenkatappa and B R Vijaykumar, Area Secretaries visited Hebbal, Yelahanka, Jakkur Layout, Shivaram Karanth, Dwarkanagar, Bagalur, Vidyaranyapura, Yelahanka New Town, Sahakarnagar and Kumara Park.

Following issues were raised by the members:

1. Posting of second officer in single officerbranches

2. Finacle related problems like local clearing, pass book printing, DD payments and delay in EOD etc.

3. Connectivity problems at Kestur, Tubegere and Kanaswadi

4. Urgent need for a strong room at Kestur and Doddabalavangala

5. Need for a regular sub staff at Nelamangala branch

6. Difficulties in deputation of officers whenexistingofficergoesonleave

7. Melekote, Harohalli branch have no BSNL lines and VSAT link is very slow resulting in customer complaints.

8. Cash is not loaded in ATM by outsourcing agency in Devanahalli branch

9. At RPC layout Branch, all systems are old, elite customers are moving out, CLSB cheques are

returned without reasons, cash in ATMs are not loaded regularly

10. Additional clerk and officer are required inKumara Park branch to handle BDA related work.

- GKVS Rao, Zonal Secretary

MEETINGS

KOCHI

A Meeting of members was held on 1st May at Hotel Pearl Regency, Trissur. President, Ekanath Baliga, General Secretary, Satish Shetty, Vice President, G Raghuraman and Sobha L, Secretary, Women’s Wing along with the Zonal functionaries attended the meeting. Former Zonal Head, Sri M Ganapathy was also present.

It is bad to think ill; but it’s worse to speak it. – Mathew Henry

S Vekideswaran, Zonal Chairman welcomed the gathering. He recalled the workers’ taking to streets in May,1886 demanding 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours to themselves – ultimately, resulting in May Day, the world over. In the background of the events which have unfolded after Finacle migration, he said, there is need to revisitthesedemandsbyCorpBankofficers.

Zonal Secretary, Geo Raj sought to highlight the problemsfacedbytheofficersintheFinacle


environment and the expectations of early solutions. and gave a brief on the activities of the Zonal unit.

and ensure proper housekeeping. He expressed concern on the delay in restarting more than 350 MoF ATMs in 6 Zones on the Eastern Coast which are kept closed by the service provider for last more than 6 months resulting in loss of business, burden of expenditure and damage to Bank’s image.

Nature has given us two ears, two eyes but one tongue. We should hear and see more than we speak. - Greek Proverb

Sobha L, Secretary, Women’s Wing expressed her concernonthelatesittingbyofficers,especiallytheladies - in the branches and the sufferings of the officersduetoFinaclemigration.Shealsoexplainedabout the industrial relations strife at Dhanalaxmi Bank and Catholic Syrian Bank which were the experiments by authoritarian managements. Kerala has a healthy working environment for women. It shall continue. Lady members shall, “Dare to stand up and speak whenever needed,” she said.

General Secretary, Satish Shetty, in his address, explained the latest developments in the Bank and discussions with management in this regard. He also expressed his concern on the increase in number of disciplinary cases in the Bank and the highlighted on the need for the officers to becautious in their approach in handling business.

He was very critical of a few Zones not paying the compensation/ reimbursement as permitted by Ministry of Finance and communicated by PAD, HO.

CBOO had demanded and supported the change of CBSplatformrightfrom2012duetothedifficultiesfaced in the present system. Though migration to new CBS started in August, 2016, problems have not yet been resolved resulting in untold misery for theofficers,difficultiesinfacingthecustomerswhohad been bestowing choicest blessings and loss of business. CBOO had been trying its level best in persuading the management functionaries to act toughly against the System Integrator and ensure hassle free CBS functioning, he said.

He also demanded a relook by the top management on promotion of clerical staff to JMG Scale I as otherwise, the existing shortage of officers wouldfurther aggravate; there would be no substitutes to Scale II officerspromotedand transferredasalsoto Scale I officers transferred upon request, postcompletion of term.

Vice President, G Raghuraman, paying homage to late Sri C Sadanandan, recalled his contributions to CBOO and the fearless leadership provided by him. He called upon the members to maintain discipline

President, Ekanath Baliga explained to the members the latest developments in Bank and the


industry as a whole, at AIBOC, the new Committees formed and pre and post- merger situations in SBI and Associate Banks. Mergers will be painful and discriminatory to the smaller banks. Bigger banks are not eloquent to the extent expected against mergers as they consider themselves to be the acquirers and more powerful.

Sneha Thomas, Zonal lady Secretary proposed the Vote of Thanks. The programme concluded with National Anthem.

- Geo Raj, Zonal Secretary

BENGALURU

A meeting of members of CBOO was organised on 15th April at Hotel Citedal, Bengaluru. President, Ekanath Baliga, General Secretary, Satish Shetty, Vice-Presidents Anil Pahwa and G Raghuraman attended the meeting from Central Office alongwith local central office functionaries and Zonalfunctionaries. Mr. Rangaswamy M, Zonal Head, Mysore Zone and Mr. Sudarshan Sethi, Zonal Head, Bengaluru-North Zone graced the occasion. More than 200 members attended the meeting.

There is nothing either good or bad; but thinking makes it so. - Shakespeare

Retired members Sri Babu (former Zonal Committee member) and Sri Ganapathy Shenoy were felicitated on the occasion. Addressing the gathering,

Sri Ganapathy Shenoy, former Zonal Head thanked all the staff in the Zone for their support to him. Business will come on its own. Extend better services to the customers, concentrate on cleaner housekeeping and discharge your duties properly and to your own satisfaction, he advised.

The proceedings commenced with a welcome address by GKVS Rao, Zonal Secretary, Bengaluru North. He appreciated the members for their participation which showed solidarity, support, faith and affection, the members had towards the Organisation and its leaders.

Thereafter, the members who had been instrumental in collecting more than Rs.1.00 lakhs towards SpecialIssueofOfficers’Voice–2016,invitedfromvarious parts of the country, were felicitated.


Mr. Rangaswamy M, Zonal Head, Mysore Zone was felicitated for highest collections. After felicitation and while addressing the gathering Mr Rangaswamy expressed his happiness for being felicitated in front of such a huge gathering. He stressed on the need for being loyal to the Organisation and thanked the Organisation for providing an opportunity to addressalargesectionofofficersoftheBank.Healso appreciated the initiatives of the Organisation forimprovingtheworkingconditionsoftheofficersin the Bank, the social development activities conducted under SWASTI and workshops on credit andrecoveryconductedforthebenefitoffirsttimebranch managers.

President, Ekanath Baliga while addressing the gathering, informed about the industry level developments. He stated that merger of SBI associates with SBI has already created confusion for the officers working in Associate banks. Hesuggested that in case of merger / consolidation of banks becomes inevitable, then merger of all public sector banks to compete with SBI may be a better proposition,astheofficerswillnotbetreatedsecondgrade employees in the merged entities. He also stated that unions shall demand extension of OPS to all the bank employees in place of NPS where the returns are not guaranteed. AIBOC has demanded 5dayweekandthatnoneoftheofficersshouldbecalled to work on holidays. He also narrated the latest developments on wage revision, some banks not giving mandate or giving conditional mandate for wage revision, threats of bank level settlement in wage revision and MOU to be entered for capital infusion to 10 Public Sectors Banks etc. He stressed on the need for youngsters to take higher responsibilities in CBOO.

Questions raised by members in the open session several were replied by the President and the General Secretary.

General Secretary, Satish Shetty expressed his happiness over the large gathering. He briefed about the developments in the Bank. He expressed his concerns about non- declaration of promotional vacanciesfrom0-1inthepretextofsurplusofficers.In a lighter vein he also stated that there is a need toappointadetectiveagencytofindouttheexcessofficers in theBank.A goodnumber of branchesare having single officer (BM). Branches withsubstantial credit exposure too do not get additional officers, affecting recovery and NPA problems.He explained the efforts of the Organisation in postingsecondofficertosingleofficerbranches.Hestatedthatthedifficultiesfacedbytheofficersonaccount of Finacle migration have been taken up with the management in several forums and also in one to one meetings with the top management. CBOO has suggested various measures that can be implemented for reducing the branch level problems due to Finacle Migration. He also said that CBOO had been pursuing the matter regarding reduction of rate of interest on staff loans and enhancement of EHPL.

B Swarna Geetha, Zonal Secretary, Bengaluru - South proposed vote of thanks.

There is no happiness higher than rest. – Dhammapada


The programme was well compeered by B R Vijaykumar and Amritha, Area Secretaries.

CBOO representatives, responding, highlighted the following issues:

a. Need for airconditioning Baikampady and Padavu Branches (Latter has substantial NRI customers).

b. Need for clerical staff at several branches.

c. Need for a strong room at Moodu Marnadu branch.

d. Multiple problems faced by Finacle branches and the effect of the same on the business of these branches.

Zonal Head informed that the issues will be looked into on priority.

- Bharath Kumar, Zonal Secretary

DELHI – NORTH

ZonalConsultativeCommitteeMeetingforthefirstquarterofthisfinancialyear2017-18washeldon9thMayatZonalOffice.CBOOTeamconsistedofVice President, Anil Pahwa, Zonal Secretary, Arvind Arora and Deputy Zonal Secretary, Mukesh Gupta. Management team was represented by Zonal Head & DGM Sri Ashok Chandra, Sri Ramachandra G Bhat, Deputy Zonal Head & AGM and Assistant Manager, Personnel, Ms. Astha Uttam.

After welcoming management and Organisation representatives, Ms. Astha Uttam, requested Zonal Head to address the members of ZCC present.

Zonal Head, Sri Ashok Chandra, highlighting the performanceof the justconcludedfinancialyear2016-17, informed that the Zone had performed exceedingly well under all parameters on liability side and could achieve CASA targets as well as average deposit targets by registering growth of 21% over the previous year. Performance under recovery, housekeeping were commendable, he said. The credit for this splendid performance goes to the entirefieldteam.Zonecouldnotachieveadvancestarget (except for agricultural advances); all other parameters on assets side were in negative to previous year. Gross NPA level had gone up despite putting all out efforts by entire team.

One who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life. – S Chander

Meeting concluded with National Anthem.

- G K V S Rao and B Swarnageetha, Zonal Secretaries

ZONAL CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS

MANGALURU

Zonal Consultative Committee Meeting of Mangaluru Zone was held at Zonal Office. B.Sridhar, Joint General Secretary, M M Mayya, Zonal Chairman, Bharath Kumar, Zonal Secretary and B S Ramanujachari, Deputy Zonal Secretary represented CBOO. Zonal Management was represented by Sri. A K Vinod, Deputy General Manager and Zonal Head, Sri S L Ganapathi, Assistant General Manager and Deputy Zonal Head and Sri Dinesh, Manager, Personnel.

Welcoming the CBOO team, Sri A K Vinod, Deputy General Manager briefed about the developments in the Zone. He emphasized the need to concentrate on CASA, Recovery and Advances under Agriculture category. He also highlighted on the need to improve upon the non- interest income.


Looking forward to the current financial year,Zonal Head shared that the Zone is moving in the right direction and is gaining momentum in doing business which must show results in coming months. A few tie - ups and MOUs have already been made with some prestigious Government Departments and Corporates which would yield good Business for the branches.

Responding, Zonal Secretary, Arvind Arora complimented Zonal Head and entire team of the Zone on admirable performance. He highlighted thefollowingproblemsfacedbyBranches/officers:

1. Problems at Finacle migrated branches facing persisting problems despite efforts at various forums. Problem resolution mechanism is unresponsive resulting in delays

2. Unilateral debiting by Currency Chest to branches towards fake notes and shortage. Branches are getting inter branch debits towards cash remitted during demonetization period even presently.

It was suggested that counting of notes at Chest should invariably be done in front of staff of remitting branches in order to obliterate any misunderstanding in this regard.

Vice President, Anil Pahwa, suggested:

1. To hold monthly staff meetings compulsorily at branches. It is a platform to share business goals, strategies, achievements, problems and hurdlesandfindsolution.

2. To review manpower requirements as most of the branches are suffering from staff shortage (both officers and clerks) affecting businessand customer service. Staff component should be commensurate to the volume and nature of business and footfalls in the branch etc.

Assistant General Manager, Sri Ramchandra G Bhat commended about good response received from branches to Outreach Programme. Focus areas for currentfinancial year are - canvassingCASA to sustain growth with focus on Corp Elite, Delight and Signature, increasing lending under Corp Schemes and MSME Sector, containing NPA and ‘Recovering more to Lend More’. He assured, the issues raised would be suitably dealt with and wherever any support was required from Zonal

Office,thesamewouldbeprovidedtobranches.

- Arvind Arora, Zonal Secretary

ZONAL COMMITTEE MEEETINGS

JAIPUR

Zonal Committee Meeting was held on 7th May, at Jaipur Main Branch. Sriram Meena, Zonal Chairman presided over the meeting.

Welcoming the functionaries, Zonal Secretary, Rakesh Kumar Meena briefed the members about the developments and discussions of 143rd Executive Committee Meeting held in Bengaluru on 15-16 April, 2017. Following issues were deliberated:

1. Mess created in the migration process and jeopardy to which the bank is exposed due to un-reconciled business position amounting hundred crores and various problems faced by the branches in daily operations.

2. Non-participation in strike by a few of the members in theZoneCentral officeshall alsobuild a data base of these non- participants.

3. Need to re assess the manpower requirements afreshinascientificwaywithduereferencetothe working environment under FINACLE.

4. Need to declare vacancies for promotion from clericaltoofficersgradetomitigatetheshortageofScaleIofficers.

5. As decided in the EC, all members were called upon to demand compensation, not less than Rs. 3000/- for working on holidays and Sundays.

6. Need to provide second officer immediately tosingle officer branches like Chittorgarh andJhunjhunuetc.andathirdofficerforbrancheswhich have crossed Rs. 30.00 crore business.

7. Zonal Committee also decided to pursue with the managers of those branches which have not paid the late sitting compensation to their branch staff during demonetization work.

The meeting was concluded with vote of thanks proposed by Mumal Gehlot Zonal Lady Secretary.

- Rakesh Kumar Meena, Zonal Secretary

Don’t pray for rain if you are going to complain about the mud.

KOLKATA

As per the decision of the EC at its meeting held at Bangalore, a meeting of the Zonal Committee was held on 27th April 2017 at Kolkata. Apart from the members of the Zonal Committee, some local activists were also invited.

Zonal Secretary, Nibid Kanti Sen welcomed the members. He also informed the members to come out with their views and suggestions on Finacle issues which can be communicated to Central Officeforfurthercourseofaction.

Circle Secretary, G.P. Nath briefed the members about the current issues concerning the Bank and theofficers.

ZC members present in the meeting expressed their displeasure and unhappiness about the way the issue of migration to Finacle is being handled without understanding field level problems.Business of the Bank has suffered on account of faulty implementation of the project.

Several suggestions emanated after thorough discussions to be conveyed to Central Office forfollow up and suitable decision. It was also decided to implement decisions communicated by Central Officeinthisregard.

- Nibid Kanti Sen, Zonal Secretary

DELHI

Combined Zonal Committee Meeting of Delhi North and Delhi South Zone was held on 7th May at Karol Bagh, New Delhi which was attended by 28 members/activists from both the units. Anil Pahwa, Vice-President was also present in the meeting.

Meeting was presided over by Amit Kumar, Zonal Chairman, Delhi-South. Welcoming all, he shared his thoughts with a special focus on importance of ZC meetings.

Manjeet Singh, Zonal Secretary, Delhi - South informed all the latest developments since last Zonal Committee meeting of Delhi South Zone. He expressed his concerns regarding problems faced by members during demonetization period and that management had not yet instructed branches to compensate the officers for their hard work.He informed members about conducting SWASTI activity at Bharat Mata Kusth Ashram, Faridabad on 14th February and appealed to everyone to identify at least one such activity to repay our debts to society.

Arvind Arora, Zonal Secretary, Delhi - North expressed his displeasure on non-participation of some members in the last strike in February as per the call given by UFBU. He exhorted that any call given by the Organization, whether strike or demonstration, it is the duty of every member to take part and make it a total success. He further informed that both Zonal units of Delhi would organize a members’ meet on 10th June which will be attended by our President and General Secretary. He requested everyone to inform members and attend the meeting.

Anil Pahwa, Vice-President briefed the members about issues discussed in 143rd EC Meeting at Bangalore where compensation for demonetization work and Finacle migration related issues were discussed threadbare. He further informed that bankemployeesandofficershavetobereadyforthenextfightasourwagenegotiationwouldcommencesoon. He expressed his concerns over absence of a few Zonal Committee members as also non-participation by some of the members in last strike. He also shared information on Government’s plan of mergers/privatization of PSBs. He requested Area Secretaries to be in touch with the members of the branches under their command.

Amit Kumar, president of the meeting summed up the proceedings with a very effective slogan “WORK LIKE A DILIGENT BANKER AND BE ALERT LIKE AN ACTIVE UNION MEMBER.”

Proposing a vote of thanks, Arvind Arora, Zonal Secretary, Delhi - North expressed his gratitude to each one for being present in the meeting despite being Sunday.

- Arvind Arora and Manjeet Singh, Zonal Secretaries

BHUBANESHWAR

Zonal Committee of Bhubaneswar unit was held at Hotel Arya Palace at Bhubaneshwar on 30th April to brief 143rd EC proceedings. The meeting attended by Area Secretaries and a few activists was presided by Pankaj Kumar Patra, Zonal Chairman.

Pravir Kumar Satpathy, Zonal Secretary welcomed the members and informed the ZC on proceedings of 143rd EC - like non-participation of some members in the February Strike, taking care of own health, work life balance and periodic health check-up, etc. The threadbare discussions on Finacle & demonetization compensation were also highlighted by the Zonal Secretary. Area Secretaries were requested to convey these issues to the members in their areas.

- Pravir Kumar Satpathy, Zonal Secretary



The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.- Thomas Szasz

AIBOC PRESS RELEASE DATED 27.04.2017

AllIndiaBankOfficers’Confederation,thelargestofficers’organizationhavingmembershipofaround285000officersvehemently condemns the statement of RBI Governor Dr. Urjit Patel on merger of Public Sector Banks, while delivering the Kotak Family Lecture at Columbia University in New York. The RBI Governor Urjit Patel said that the Indian banking system could be better off if some public sector banks are consolidated to have fewer and healthier entities and he further added that it would help in dealing with the problem of stressed assets of these Banks. While we are aware of the agenda of the Government to destroy the fabric of the Public Sector by opening up nine previously restricted economic sectors, including civil aviation, single-brand retail stores, pharmaceuticals and military production, to 100 percent foreign direct investment and ownership, we are deeply hurt by the statement of Shri Patel, who as the head of the apex Bank of the country, should have refrained from making such an irresponsible comment publicly. Till date, he has not come out with a public statement on Demonetisation in the backdropofthefindingsoftheParliamentaryCommitteewhich has opined that the exercise was a colossal failure. Yet, we are shocked to come across his statement, which is in sync with the stand of the Government. The yeomen service by PSU Banks in implementing the Jan Dhan Exercise as well as the handling of various Social Security Schemes has conveniently been forgotten. Further, during his speech he opined, the PSBs to raise private capital from the markets and not rely on the Govt. for that. He dare not ask the Government to compensate the PSU Banks for the opportunity cost for the entire period of Demonetisation and beyond, which has adversely affected the bottom-line of the banks. It is very unfortunate to learn that the Governor of the regulator of banks in India commented that merger of banks would help in dealing with the problem of stressed assets of these banks, which is inaccurate. History is replete with examples of failed mergers. In fact, most mergers do not yield the desired synergyandendupinfiasco.TheIndianeconomywillbesignificantlyaffectedbythemergersasitwillshrinkthenumber of branches. The economically weaker sections of the society will be deprived of basic banking services and would be gullible to the money lenders albeit in a different

form. The RBI has been steadfastly refusing to divulge the names of top corporate wilful defaulters. His statement that the private sector banks are doing better is also not factual, Dhanlakshmi Bank Ltd., Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd. and even Axis Bank are not doing well and we demand nationalization of these Banks. We urge upon Shri Patel to make a statement on these issues to dispel many doubt about his ‘neutral’ stance.

Mr. Urjit Patel further added, “the weaker banks are losing market share and that is a good thing.” Such a statement, made in a foreign country, against PSBs, whether weak or strong and that too coming from the regulator is very culpable in nature. PSBs, whether weak or strong need to be revived and as a regulator, the role of RBI is pivotal in this. A weak bank reveals a weaker regulator. The role of a regulator is not merely restricted to imposition of penalties at the drop of a hat, but more meaningfully and broadly to revive the position, to guide them and to act as a mentor. Unfortunately, in our case, our regulator publicly appreciates the distressed position of PSBs, instead of coming out with any clue to revive the position. Regarding losing of market share by PSBs, Urjit Patel has conveniently hidden actual facts. Small PSBs, which have been alleged to have lost market share have in realityincreasedtheirdeposits,advancesandgrossprofit.However, due to the stringent provision norms prescribed byRBIagainstthebigticketcorporateloans,thenetprofithas come down.

In the days to come, the position of NPAs will worsen if the names of willful defaulters is not published immediately and treated as criminal offenders. The government and the RBI failed miserably to bring in any stringent act or regulation to deal with the willful large corporate borrowers which account for more than 60 percent of the public sector banks’ NPAs. The RBI cannot shirk off its responsibility of the huge NPAs as all the Bank’s boards had RBI nominees as Director. Dr. Patel was in the board of SBI when many crucial decisions were taken.

AIBOC will continuously pursue its mission to unveil the willful corporate defaulters and oppose any move to merge PSBs. It’s a dichotomy that on the one hand RBI gives licence to more banks including small and Payment Banks but want Public Sector Banks to merge and reduce branches. In 60 years, we have the lowest credit growth whereas farmers don’t get loans; traders don’t get loans;

aiBOC News


Failure is delay, but not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end street. - William A Ward

students don’t get loans. Let RBI see where the problem is. We do hope that in future Shri Patel will refrain from making such statements which will show the apex bank in poor light and raise questions about the effectiveness of the central bank of the country which is shredding its responsibilities day by day.

Sd/- (D. T. Franco) General Secretary

AIBOC PRESS RELEASE DATED 29.04.2017

It is disheartening to see the statements of Governor RBI and Deputy Governor, RBI on Bank Privatisation. Dr. Urjit Patel had stated “The weaker Banks are losing market share and that is good thing”. Are these Banks really weak? Who made them weak? What was the role of the RBI representative in the Board’s of these Banks? Whenthedeposits,advancesandgrossprofitsaresteadilyincreasing how do we call these Banks weak?

Dr. Viral Acharya, Dy. Governor, says, “This re-privatisation will reduce the overall amount that the Govt needs to inject asbankcapitalandhelppreserveitshardearnedfiscaldiscipline, alongwith stable inflation outlook and thediverse nature of our growth engine” When US, Japan, China etc. have pumped in so much of capital why Govt. of India should not? The RBI and Govt. have received very good return in terms of dividend and Taxes from these Banks. If Dr. Viral Acharya feels the weak banks can be sold who does he think will buy? If Private Sector people will buy, is it to lose their money?

When we are preparing Turn Around Plan for 10 banks tomake themprofitable in spite of the corporateNPAcreated by RBI & Govt policies these statements are very unpatriotic. In earlier occasion in 1996-97, when 3 banks wereconsideredweak,theofficersandemployeesworkedhardandmadethemprofitable.NowRBIseemstobenotinterested in a Turn Around at all. Whom are they serving? What happened to their autonomy? Why can’t RBI prepare Turn Around Plan for one bank and prove its capability? We are capable of turning around all these Banks into profitmakingenterprisesiftheGovt.andRBItakesomeserious action on NPA as recommended by the Parliament Standing Committee on Finance. We also demand that RBI should reimburse the cost of demonetisation to the banks which will augment their capital.

Let us not forget that between 1960 and 1969, there were 48 compulsory mergers of private banks, 20 Voluntary amalgamations, 17 mergers with SBI, 125 transfer of assets and liabilities all involving 210 Private Banks. The no. of Private Banks which was 567 in 1951 came down to 295in1961andfinally91in1967.Thenationalisationof Banks was based on the performance of the Private Banks. Out of 10 Private Banks started in 1993, 5 had to be merged due to poor performance. Let us not forget Global Trust Bank which made 1100 Cr loss in 10 years and was taken over by Public Sector Oriental Bank of Commerce. Between 1969 and 2014 there were 24 private banks which collapsed.

We also demand a discussion with the Association and Unions who are the stakeholders by RBI. The central bank’s role is to develop a robust banking sector and not to destroy it.


AIBOC PRESS RELEASE DATED 18/05/2017

AllIndiaBankOfficers’Confederationferventlydenouncesthe large scale layoffs of the employees in I.T. industry. All the major Information Technology giants including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, Infosys and Cognizant, etc. have started firing thousands of their employeesleading to fears of massive unemployment in the whole country and loss of livelihoods.

Although the IT companies have given the statement that the employees have been fired as part of their annual“performance appraisal” to align the workforce with the business objectives, the fact remains that the rise of protectionist politics, mainly in United States and other advanced countries, has increased the pressure on companies there to outsource contracts to local companies, instead of firms in India. This ismakingthe growth prospectmore difficult for IT companies inIndia. The trouble in Indian IT industry further worsened with US President, Donald Trump’s ‘Buy American, Hire American’ campaign. The US is in the process of tightening the norms for H-1B visas. Nearly 86 per cent of the H-1B visas issued for workers in the IT sector go to Indians and thisfigureisnowsuretobescaleddowntoabout60percent or even less. Indian companies have been now forced to recruit locally.


If you have not tasted a bad apple, you will never appreciate a good apple. You have to experience life to understand life.

There is heart burn among the employees who have been fired, not only because they have lost their source oflivelihood, but they have been rated as under performers or non-performers by their respective companies which would ruin their future job prospects in other organizations too. We can very well understand that the IT companies have awarded lower ratings to the employees to prevent any possible labour litigation over the layoffs. Most of the people may not know that the performance evaluation system of IT Companies is such that a section of employees will inevitably be rated as low performers irrespective of the revenue generated per employee. The IT sector companies amassed so much of wealth when business was doing well,nowtheyshouldusesomeoftheprofittore-skillanddiversify the activity to retain the employees.

It is worth-mentioning in this context that the present government’s biggest betrayal of the Indian people has been on its promise of jobs. During the prolonged election campaign prior to the 2014 general election, our present PM promised jobs to everybody, especially the youth. He harped on youth unemployment and the failure of the earlier government to create jobs. Now, even after 3 years of the formation of the government at the centre, we have not seen any development, rather the situation has only deteriorated further. Even after this exercise of huge layoffs in the IT sector, the government is watching the drama as a mute spectator with no real action to resolve the issue. The Govt. of India, which is signing so many bilateral agreements with other countries and allowing them to start business in our country and also allowed free imports, should demand free movement of labour and professionals to other countries also.

We must understand that when people are unemployed in large numbers, it hurts the rest of the economy, creating a cyclical problem. Again, when companies suffer because of lost business, they might in turn be forced to make layoffs of their own, making the unemployment rate rise and overall spending drop even more leading to further loss. As per the data furnished by the government, though the Indian economy has grown in terms of GDP, it has been a laggard in terms of job creation. It generates only two-thirds as many jobs with every unit of growth vis-a-vis the global average. Therefore, increasing GDP will not be enough; the pattern of growth of the economy must be changed to create more jobs. We put on demand that the

government’s and the policymakers’ mindsets will have to be changed. We cannot allow the government or any other party to play with the future of our youth. We also strongly demand that the government intervenes immediately and arranges to end the large scale layoffs in the IT sector, leading to massive unemployment. The All India Bank Officers`ConfederationwilllendallitssupporttotheITsector employees in their struggle and we encourage them to form trade unions in every company.


Random Reflections Payment Banks – Digital Banking and Privatisation

- D T Franco

The advertisements of Airtel Payment Bank showing crowded branches, indifferent staff and different interest rates have been prepared to show public sector banks in poor light and an abuse on the employees of Public Sector Banks. It says why the Banks have to be like this? The ethics to be followed in advertisement is completely given a go by.

“Chalo School automated” has sent me an email asking to use pay U money for online payment using credit / debit cards, wallet and net banking as easy as movie ticket booking. It says, “Chalo-let’s move to cashless mode to build Digital India”

Another email from Paytm says “ Review & Get 200, Refer & Earn extra 100”. Yet another email received from Funds India says “Save in Super Savings Account and earn 8.65% growth”. At the bottom of the one page advertisement which lures with “Free ATM Card” says the Super Savings Account invests in Reliance Money Manager Fund and adds “subject to market risk”.

The fourth email of today from Fullerton India says, “Fulfill your dreamswith special offers fromFullertonIndia Personal Loans – Interest rate starts from 11.99%. Check Eligibility – Apply online”. I remember reading “Banking” means the accepting for the purpose of lending or investment of deposits of money from the public, repayable on demand or otherwise and withdrawal by cheque, draft, order or otherwise”.


Life is not about pleasing everyone; it is about hurting none.

Are these companies mentioned above who send emails to us and numerous similar companies not doing “Banking”? How is this happening without a Banking Licence? The Government has liberalised everything to encourage the private sector. Who will supervise? How the customers will be safe guarded? Every year so many NBFCs are blacklisted. Still the Government does not bother unless huge scams like Saradha Scam surface.

The report of Boston Consultancy Group & Google “Digital Banking 2020” says telecom players like Airtel, Reliance, Vadafone and tech centric payment players like Paytm who are given Payment Bank licence cannot earn lending revenues and hence digital banking and cashless economy have to be pursued. In a country where 26% are illiterate, 8.43 Cr children do not attend schools in the school going age and only 10% can read and write English, this digital modes are going to further marginalise the marginalised. 10% of the population is 12.7 crores. These are the ones who are Banking with us but now getting lured by the agencies. This will affect the Public Sector Banks badly. Oncetheprofitgetsdecreasing,thebankswillbeblamedfor poor performance and high NPA and they will be privatised. This has already happened in other countries. As trade unions are strong here the Governments are findingalternatewaystoprivatise.

This can lead to dotcom like scams. This can lead to looting of common man’s money. This can also lead to failure of the Banking system. We had only one East India Company which could make us poor slaves and needed 200 years of struggle to send them back. Now, hundreds of MNCs, Consultants and Indian Corporates together are looting us.

So time has come for the common man and the bankers to come together. Understand the long term goal of the Government and the private corporates. Save the common man. You will save yourself.

[The above write-up released on 15/02/2017 is one of the

series of write-ups of Sri D T Franco, General Secretary, AIBOC -

“[email protected]”]

Being a banker doesn’t suit the RBI

Such has been the concern over banks’ rising pile of bad loans and historically low credit growth, that the Centre’s new ordinance has mostly found optimists lauding it as a path-breaking move. Under normal circumstances, the

ordinance that essentially empowers the Reserve Bank of India to micromanage bank decisions on resolution, would have bankers and critics of the old school crying foul. But these are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary measures. True, despite the relentless effort of the central bank to put banks’ affairs into order through various tools to resolve stressed assets, there has been little progress on the ground. Toss in restructured loans, and the tally of stressed assets could well be upwards of Rs10 lakh crore.

Last ditch effort

The ordinance which empowers the RBI to set up oversight panels to look into loan recasts, is being viewed as a desperate, last throw of the dice. With the RBI forcing all lenders to come on board with debt restructuring, the resolution could after all pick up pace. But will banks that have now been stripped of their decision-making authority be able to take key decisions on lending henceforth? Most importantly, will the RBI be able to act as a prudent and independent regulator after it muddies its hands in the mundane affairs of banks?

Why did things have to come to such a pass that the regulator has been forced to don overalls and dirty its hands on the shop floor? TheRBI has been active inprodding banks to clean the NPA mess starting with the Joint Lenders’ Forum, and the SDR and S4A schemes. Realising that banks were chary of even recognising non-performing loans, the regulator brought in the asset quality review (AQR) in FY16. The AQR was touted as a major clean-up activity, one that would allow banks to start off on a clean slate. Forgotten were the important issues of inadequate credit appraisal systems and shoddy lending practices that caused the problem in the firstplace.

Where the buck goes

But the mess, as it appears, did not end with AQR. Private banks which got off with a shorter AQR list, had some catching up to do. Realising that there were stilldivergencesinassetclassificationandprovisioningcompared to its norms, the central bank last month issued a circular requiring banks to make suitable disclosures pertaining to FY16. Axis Bank now says that loans to the tune of an additional Rs 9,478 crore should have been declaredasNPAsintheFY16fiscalitself;thebankhadreported gross NPAs of Rs 6,087 crore only as of FY16. According to the ICICI Bank management, the RBI


A thing you do not want is dear at any price. - Proverb

assessed incremental bad loans to the tune of Rs 5,100 crore as part of this exercise. The two banks explain the under-disclosure in FY16 saying that they accounted for the same during FY17, before the RBI issued its directive last month.

The fact that the RBI had to issue so many directives and circulars on the operational front alone highlights the critical governance issues at banks. The RBI will now step into banks’ shoes to clean up the bad loan mess. The fact that it will — under the authorisation of the Centre — instructbanksonhowtotacklespecificaccountsraisesquestions on the central bank’s autonomy. The preamble to the RBI Act 1934 indicates two core functions of the RBI — issue of currency and monetary authority. The legal mandate for other key functions and responsibilities comesfromspecificstatutes—TheBankingRegulationAct 1949, The Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999, The Payment & Settlement Systems Act 2007. In 2011, the then governor of RBI, Duvvuri Subbarao, in one of his speecheshadclarifiedthattheRBIhasnotbeenaccordedautonomy under the statute.

The RBI Act lays down that the Centre may give directions to the RBI, after consultation with the governor, in the public interest. In reality however he re-iterated that the RBI operates with a functionally autonomous mandate and there has been no instance so far of the Government exercising its reserve powers to issue a directive. That was then. The Centre’s demonetisation move changed that. Questions about the RBI’s independence and credibility have been raised since then. According to the two new insertions in the Banking Regulation Act — 35 AA and 35 — the Centre can authorise the RBI to issue directions to banks on resolution of stressed assets. Remember, these sections will stay in the Act much after the NPA problem is resolved. Can the RBI still carry on with its implicit ‘autonomous’ image after it involves itself with bank decisions? Unlikely, as these provisions can be called upon by the Centre or the RBI any time, not necessarily in dire times. Most of the past lending decisions leading to the NPA mess reek of political compulsions. It needs to be seen if the RBI can ring-fence its directives on resolution from political interference.

Time to dissolve BBB

Rather thanmollycoddling banks and finding quickfixsolutions to tackle bad loans, kick-starting reforms to improve bank governance would have been the right way

to deal with the issue at hand. Sometime back, with the constitution of the Banks Board Bureau chaired by CAG Vinod Rai, expectations ran high of a drastic overhaul in governance of PSBs. But after a year of coming into being, BBB has proved to be damp squib, thanks to the Centre’s unwillingness to let go. The BBB’s latest recommendations mooting a new Governance, Reward and Accountability Framework for PSBs could well be a non-starter.

The PJ Nayak committee had envisaged granting more autonomytobankboards.Asafirststep,theCentrewoulddo well to reduce its stake. There is an urgent need to professionalise and depoliticise the governance structure. After all, when the economy picks up, banks will have to get on the lending bandwagon. And to avoid repeating past mistakes, empowering bank boards will be critical. That is the way to go rather than for the regulator to get into an operational role in banks.

- The Hindu Business Line, 11/05/2017

Waiving loans doesn’t end the distress

After the Yogi Adithyanath government waived farm loans of about Rs 36,000 crore for UP farmers, pressure has mounted on other Sates to follow suit. But contrary to common belief, debt waivers aside from possibly guaranteeing electoral victory, do little to alleviate the plight of farmers. Neither do they help kick-start the rural economy nor spur agriculture investment. In fact, loan waivers only compound the problems faced by farmers by tarnishing their credit history and restricting access to institutional credit. Worse, they create a moral hazard by disrupting the credit discipline among borrowers. The solution lies in offering ways to improve farmer’s income-whether through better price for produce, introducing methods to generate non-farm income, or saving on cost of farming.

In the past

Thefirst-evernationwidefarmloanwaiverwasannouncedbytheVPSinghgovernmentin1990atafiscalcostofRs 10,000 crore, Banks ended up paying a huge price for this as many borrowers started to default, in anticipation of more waivers. An ICRIER paper in 2015 entitled ‘Evaluation of Credit policy for Agriculture in India’ makes a reference to the study of Shylendra and Singh in 1994 which showed that following the bailout programme, the loan recovery of primary Agriculture Credit Societies in Karnataka fell sharply. It dropped from 74.9 percent in 1987-88 to 41.1 percent in 1991-92.


Good and evil in man weigh well; judge him by virtues which prevail. - Thirukkural

Debt relief packages destroy the credit culture. A World Bank research paper shows that for a standard deviation of one in bailout exposure, there is a 4-6 percent decline in the number of loans. This study was done in 2008 after the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram wrote off a massive Rs 50,000 crore of farm loans. What happened after the bailout was that banks reduced exposure to, districts where the write-offs were high. Reserve Bank of India data shows that non-performing assets in agriculture for commercial banks rose after the 2008 debt waiver programme. Between 2009-10 and 2012-13, NPAs of SCBs (in agriculture) rose from Rs 10,353 crore to Rs.30,200 crore.

The claim of the supporters of the bailout programmes that it has positive impact on rural economy is also wrong, says the World Bank paper. “We used regionally disaggregated data to test for the effect of the bailout on rural productivity, wages and employment. Our results identify a precise zero for each of these outcomes.” The study has shown a low spending multiplier from the debt relief programme. Debt waivers are bad for everyone: those whoreceivedebtreliefasalsoforthosewhodonotbenefit;because they didn’t have any overdue loan, says another research paper (‘Borrowing Culture and Debt Relief: EvidencefromapolicyExperiment’,April2013).Thefirstcategory of borrowers become defaulters in banks’ book and are denied loans in the future. The other category of borrowers who are discontented because they didn’t benefitthelasttime,buildhopesforafreshwaiverandstop repayments. For fresh loan, they then borrow from the informal sector at a much higher cost.

Not much use

The recent experience in debt waivers in the country has not been good. In 2014, before the elections, both N Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party and K Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana Rastra Samithi promised loan waivers to farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Both saw victory in the polls and implemented the waiver programme. But, given its massive scale-Rs 40,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh and about Rs 17,000-20,000 crore for Telangana –the States had to add many riders to the scheme.The loanwaiver,finally,onlycompounded theproblems of farmers. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh

went up to 516 in 2015 from 160 reported in 2014, while in Telangana it rose by over 50 percent, to 1,358 deaths in 2015. Debt Waivers offer only short term relief. Also these do not offer any respite to the most underprivileged farmers who are seldom entertained by banks and end up borrowing at high interest rates from money –lenders. The data shows about 30-35 percent of farmers in the country still depend only on non-institutional credit.

Debt waivers should be replaced by a comprehensive package for complementing the income of farmers. The respective State agri departments need to work with their agriculture universities and draw up a plan for improving the non-farm income of farmers through poultry farming, cattlebreeding,orfisheries.TheyshouldhelpFarmersmake the choice of right crops and variety. Ways to reduce costs and improve farm productivity have to be brought in. Ensuring a good price for the produce is also important.E-NAM,theCentre’sflagshipelectronicnationalagriculture market scheme, is still stuck at various levels of implementation. Many States are yet to modify their APMC Act to create a single market for facilitating trade through e-NAM portal.

The insurance angle

The crop insurance scheme is also one way to ensure farmers do not suffer losses because of crop failure. The new version of the scheme, the PM Fasal Bima Yojana, has achieved limited success. By covering largely only loanee farmers (these are sold through banks that automatically debit the loan account with insurance premium), this scheme has turned to be more advantageous to banks than to farmers, Small tenant farmers under pressure from the high cost of lease rent and borrowing from money-lenders, are still unaware of this insurance. Even when loan waivers become necessary, as during a natural calamity, they should be directed only to small and marginal farmers. An unconditional bailout for every farmer is an unnecessary burden to the exchequer, when large farmers are capable of absorbing the loss in most cases. Also the Government should prevent bailout programmes becoming a disincentive for diligent borrowers to pay their dues. Offering credit at a lower rate the following year to good borrowers, for instance, can help reduce the moral hazard to some extent.



A small dot stops a big sentence. The addition of a few more dots, gives it continuity. In life, every ending can be converted into a new beginning.

‘BANKARTOONS’ RELEASED

Readers of Officers’ Voice neither need any introduction nor any explanations on cartoons. The last page of OV contains a regular feature - cartoons on issues related withbanking,officers’/employees’serviceconditions,theirplight due to human resource crunch, campaigns, targets, technology and all and sundry. Synonymous with these cartoons is the name of its author – Sri H S Vishwanath, former Secretary of Balasubramanian Foundation. HSV, as he is called by near and dear ones, has made substantial value addition to the OV through the cartoons – containing enjoyable humour, igniting corrective/introspective thought process and relaxing the ever serious bankers.

Foundation has compiled 222 cartoons of HSV published in OV all these years and brought it out in the form of a book titled BANKartoons. Sri T R Bhat, former Chairman of CBOO has written foreword to the book. Former President, Sri D N Prakash (who was instrumental in developing the cartoon page in OV in the form of ‘In Lighter Vein’ in the last page of OV) has written a preface.

Book release programme was held at Mythic Society, Bangalore on 20th May. Sri M S Narasimha Murthy, famous Humour Columnist and writer in Kannada was the Chief Guest. Sri D N Prakash, former President was Guest of Honour. President, Ekanath Baliga, General Secretary, SatishShettyalongwithalloffice-bearersinBengaluru,President of CBROA, Sri U Suresh Shenoyand family members of Sri Vishwanathwere also present.

Programme commenced with invocation by B RVijaykumar, Area Secretary, Bengaluru North.

contributions of HSV to the OV through the cartoons. Upon receiptofOV,peopleturntothelastpagefirstandthenread the remaining portion, he said. He thanked both the Zonal Units of Bengaluru for well organizing the event.

BaLasUBRaMaNiaN FOUNDaTiON

President, Ekanath Baliga explained the background of the compilation of the book. The entire work relating to the selection of the cartoons, title, cover page design and the notes were carried out by Sri Vishwanath which culminated in the final output. He had added a newdimensiontoOVandCBOO,bypublishingafirsttimecollection of cartoons related with only banking, is trying to repay in a very small way as a recognition to HSV’s contributions, he said.

The audience consisting of members, retired members, invitees and the family members of HSV were welcomed by Satish Shetty, General Secretary. He lauded the

Former President, Sri D N Prakash narrated the history of insertion of cartoons in OV, HSV’s entry into the OV contribution, its formalization trough devoting the last page to HSV in the form of ‘Lighter Vein’ and the quality of the cartoons which always have brought smiles on the faces of the readers apart from being eye-openers many times. There was no vengeance of ridicule in HSV’s cartoons. Even the persons, who got related with the subject matter of cartoon would appreciate the subtle and explicit humour, appreciate the theme and like the contents, he said.

Mr. Ramanjee, Assistant Manager, presently working at Zonal Office, Delhi(South) is a visually challenged Para Athlete and national record holder of 100 meter sprint. He represented India 6 times at various international events and bagged many medals in continuity in the national aswell as international competitions.Heflies the tricolorandtheCorporationBank’sflaghigh.From25thto 27th of March he participated in the 7th Sharjah International Open Para Athletics meet in Sharjah and bagged Gold Medal in Long Jump event and brought laurels for our Bank as well as for the country.

Let’s wish him good luck for achieving many more laurels for the country and for the Corporation Bank in the coming competitions.

aChieveMeNTs


The book was released in the benign hands of Sri M S NarasimhaMurthy, the Chief Guest. He was all in praise for HSV’s quality cartoons and the messages it conveyed. Explaining the background as to how the daily

life cases faced by the bankers are an abundant fodder for humourists or cartoonists, he gave example of his own banking career in erstwhile State Bank of Mysore which apart from containing humour were very challenging.Hemadespecificmentionofafewcartoonsinthebookwhich were pointers to real life and joyous. Cartoons have a corrective value, he added.

adversities in life, humour is essential.Genesis of humour has roots in the pains felt by individuals. In laughter, you forgetyourself.Artisticpursuithasaspecifiedcurrency.CBOO has revived the urge of pursuit in me. Apart from humour, cartoons also contain a feeling of ridicule. But it is not with malice.” He thanked Sri T R Bhat for writing the foreword and Sri D N Prakash for providing a space in last page of OV to his cartoons for years.

S Ramachandrappa, Deputy General Secretary, suggested that the Bank must give an option – HTMBS (How To Make Bankers Smile) as Corp Bankers have almost lost smiles on faces after demonetization and Finacle migration.He thanked one and all in contributing to the success of the day’s programme.

Sri B R Vijayakumarcompered the programme well, giving suitable narratives.The programme concluded with National Anthem.

Responding to observations of all speakers, Sri H S Vishwanath thanked all for their support to his cause. Late Sri R K Laxman is my inspiration to start drawing cartoons, he started. “Memories become your life. CBOO has given me plenty of sweet memories. In facing


ReTiReMeNTs

A bird is known by its note; a man by his talk.

The following members will be retiring from the service of the Bank on attaining the age of superannuation on 30th June, 2017:

1. Mr. Nagesh Shenoy R, Manager, Communications Cell, Head Office

Sri Shenoy joined the Bank as a Clerk in July, 1978. He waspromotedtoOfficercadreinJMGScaleIinJuly,1984.He became Manager in MMG Scale II in December, 2001.

During 39 years of service, heworked atHeadOffice,Mangalore Car Street, Harihar, Bhatkal, Kurubagonda, Haveri, New Delhi-Friends Colony, Chandni Chowk, HeadOffice-CreditRiskManagementDivision,Bastora,Bicholim and Panjim.

2. Mr. Pramod R Kamath, Chief Manager, Zonal Office-Hyderabad

Sri Kamath joined the Bank as a Clerk in December, 1978.HewaspromotedtoOfficercadreinJMGScaleIinDecember, 1983. He became Manager in MMG Scale II in April, 1997. He was elevated as Senior Manager in Scale III in February, 2003 and Chief Manager in SMG Scale IV in August, 2008.

During 39 years of service, he worked at Mumbai-Worli, Service, Fort, CBB, Bangalore-CBB, Mumbai-Nariman Point,HeadOffice-CreditDivision(Sanctions),PrioritySector & Retail Lending Division, Mumbai-Marol S M E, Bangalore-WhiteField,S.C.Road,Hubli - ZonalOfficeand CCPC.

3. Mr. T E Manohar, Assistant General Manager, Zonal Office, Goa

Sri Manohar joined the Bank as a Clerk in May, 1979. HewaspromotedtoOfficercadreinJMGScaleIinJuly,1984. He was promoted as Manager in MMG Scale II in November, 1997 and as Senior Manager in Scale III in February, 2003. He became Chief Manager in SMG Scale IV in August, 2008 and Assistant General Manager in Scale V in September, 2014.

During 38 years of service, he worked at New Delhi-RegionalOffice,GreaterKailash,Somwarpet,Nellihudikeri,Madikeri, Pune - Main, CAPS, Mumbai-CAPS, Bangalore -

RegionalOffice-KarnatakaII,Basaveshwarnagar,Mysore-Siddhartha Layout, Virajpet, Mumbai-Kandivili, Madikeri and Mangalore-Ram Bhavan Complex.

4. Mr. J Harischandra Bhat, Manager , G M’s (Credit ) Secretariat HO, Head Office

Sri Bhat joined the Bank in January, 1980 as a Typist cum Clerk.HewaspromotedtoOfficercadre in JMG Scale I in April, 2010. He became Manager in MMG Scale II in May, 2015.

During 37 years of service, he workedatRanibennur,Mangalore-CarStreet,HeadOffice-AdvanceDepartment,Madanthyar,HeadOffice - PAD(OfficersWing),PPM&BranchExpansionDept,OfficialLanguage Division, Planning & Resource Mobilisation Division, Economic Intelligence Planning & MIS Division, Publicity & Public Relation and Bylakuppe.

5. Mr. Jagadeesan P P, Senior Manager, Kasargod (Kochi Zone)

Sri Jagadeesan joined the Bank as a Clerk in March, 1980. HewaspromotedtoOfficercadreinJMGScaleIinMay,1986. He became Manager in MMG Scale II in March, 2003 and Senior Manager in Scale III in July, 2014.

During 37 years of service, heworked atHeadOffice,Bijapur, Kanhangad, Gondal, Thrikkaruva, Kasargod, HeadOffice-SupportServiceDivision,PAD(OfficersWing),P P M & Branch Expansion Department, Bovikan, Zonal OfficeDelhiNorth,Kannur,HeadOffice-Govt.Business& Bankassurance Division and Bellikoth.

6. Mr. Sudhir Nayak N, Chief Manager, Zonal Office, Goa

Sri Nayak joined the Bank as a Clerk in August, 1980. HewaspromotedtoOfficercadreinJMGScaleIinMay,1986. He became Manager in MMG Scale II in October, 1998 and Senior Manager in Scale III in December, 2004. He was elevated as Chief Manager in SMG Scale IV in February, 2012.

During 37 years of service, he worked at Ankola, Mangalore-Pandeshwar, Chitradurga, Karkala, New Delhi-Lodhi Complex, Aralasurali, Nandikuru, Alangar, Pune -


Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty - J P Curran

Corp Bank Homes Ltd, Kharadi, Bangalore-Mysore Main

Road,M.G.Road,CheekanahalliandKochi-ZonalOffice.

7. Mr. Nagendra, Senior Manager, Madikeri-C. O. B. S. E. T. I (Mysore Zone)

Sri Nagendra joined the Bank

as a Clerk in October, 1980. He

waspromoted toOfficercadre in

JMG Scale I in October, 1985. He

became Manager in MMG Scale

II in November, 1997 and Senior

Manager in Scale III in May, 2015.

During 37 years of service, he worked at Sullia, Hassan,

Bidar, Bhadravathi-B. H. Road, Mysore-Main, Mandya,

Nellihudikeri, Ranibennur, New Delhi-Rajendra Place,

GreaterKailash,ZonalOffice-DelhiNorth,ZonalOffice

-Coimbatore,ZonalOffice-MysoreandMysoreCurrency

Chest.

8. Mr. Ravindranath Mishra, Manager, Lucknow-Service (Lucknow Zone)

Sri Mishra joined the Bank as a Clerk in October, 1980. He

waspromotedtoOfficercadreinJMGScaleIinOctober,

1985. He became Manager in MMG Scale II in October,

1998.

During 37 years of service, he worked at Mumbai-Fort,

Lucknow,Varanasi,NewDelhi-RegionalOffice,Service,

St. Jose De Areal, Agra, Yamuna Nagar, Lucknow-

Indiranagar, Hazaratganj and Raibareilly.

9. Ms. Sangeetha Sadananda Nayak, Manager, Mumbai-Ghatkopar -W (Thane Zone)

Ms. Sangeetha joined the Bank

as Clerk in June, 1981. She was

promotedasOfficerinJMGScale

I in May, 1998.

During 36 years of service, she

worked at Mumbai-Chembur,

Ghatkoper-West,ZonalOffice,Mulund,CAPS,Wadala,

Mulund and Thane.

10. Mr. Parameshwar Bhat Alek, Assistant General Manager, Mumbai-Virar (Thane Zone)

Sri Bhat joined the Bank as a Clerk in November, 1981. He was promoted to Officer cadre JMG Scale I in February, 1996. He was promoted as Manager in MMG Scale II in December, 2004 and as Senior Manager in Scale III in September, 2010. He became Chief Manager in SMG IV in June, 2014 and Assistant General Manager in Scale V in February, 2017.

During 36 years of service, he worked at Bangalore-Regional Office, Rajajinagar, Hadinbal, Honnavar, Bellary, New Delhi-Vasundhara Enclave, Dilshad Garden Bangalore-Shantinagar, Kempapura, Bangalore-Jakkur Layout, Dodballapur and Mumbai - Mandvi.

11. Mr. Sudheer S Modak, Manager, Hubli-Currency Chest (Hubli Zone)

Sri Modak joined the Bank as a Clerk in December, 1981. He was promoted as JMG Scale I in February, 1994. He became Manager in MMG Scale II in November, 2005.

During 36 years of service, he worked at Athani, Dharwad, Belwadi, Ahmedabad-Navarangapur, Hubli-New Cotton Market, Yaliwal, Ranibennur, New Delhi-Rajendra Place, Gurgaon-Palam Vihar, Gokak, Bhadravathi-B. H. Road and Sagar-B H Road.

12. Mr. J Srinivasa Prakasha, Assistant Manager, Bangalore-Shantinagar (Bangalore – South)

Sri Prakasha joined the Bank as a Clerk in January, 1982.HewaspromotedtoOfficercadreinJMGScaleIinSeptember, 2004.

During 35 years of service, he worked at Davangere-Mandipet, Harihar, Thayavanige, Yellur, Hindupur, Belgaum - ZonalOffice, Samadevigalli andBangalore-Jayanagar 9th Block.

13. Mr. Mohammad Amiruddin, Chief Manager, Circle Audit Office-Kolkata

SriAmiruddinjoinedtheBankasAgriculturalFieldOfficerin JMG Scale I in July, 1982. He was promoted as Manager


Never say ‘No’; never say,’ I cannot’; for you are infinite. Even time and space are nothing compared with your nature. – Swami Vivekananda

in MMG Scale II in October, 1998. He became Senior Manager in Scale III in December, 2007 and was elevated as Chief Manager in SMG Scale IV in August, 2012.

During 35 years of service, he worked at Eluru, Masulipatnam, Gandepalli, Nizamabad, Chennai-Regional Office, Service,Hyderabad-Service, Lucknow -RegionalOffice-Northern Region II, Vijayawada - Zonal Office,Hyderabad-Zonal AuditOffice and Inspection& AuditDivision HO.

Sri Amiruddin was a member of 15th EC as the Regional Secretary of Lucknow regional unit (August, 2001- June, 2003). He also served the 16th EC as Assistant General Secretary.

14. Mr. Prabhakaran G, Senior Manager, Zonal Office Coimbatore

Sri Prabhakaran joined the Bank as a Clerk in November, 1982.HewaspromotedtoOfficercadreinJMGScaleIin June, 2001. He became Manager in MMG Scale II in September, 2008 and as Senior Manager Scale III in July, 2014.

During 35 years of service, he worked at Vellore, Thanjavur, Ussoor, Kumbakonam, Mumbai-Mahakali Caves Road, Turbhe-Vashi, Chennai-Anna Salai, Ambur, Chennai-Teyanampet and Salem-Alagapuram.

15. Mr. B N Nagendra, Assistant General Manager, Zonal Office Patna

Sri Nagendra joined the Bank as AgriculturalFieldOfficerinJMGScaleI in May, 1983. He was promoted as Manager in Scale II in December, 1994 and as Senior Manager in Scale III in February, 2003. He became Chief Manager in SMG Scale IV in December, 2007 and Assistant General Manager in Scale V in June, 2011.

During 34 years of service, he worked at Bhadravathi-B. H. Road, Varamballi, Shimoga, Shivani, Kolhapur, Biligi, Ambala, Bangalore-Basavanagudi, Jayanagar and Chennai-Kelly’s Corner.

16. Mr. Lal Dass, Assistant Manager, Zonal Office Ludhiana

Sri Dass joined the Bank as Clerk in October, 1983

and became Special Assistant in February, 2002. He was promoted toOfficercadreinJMGScaleIApril,2007.

During 34 years of service, he worked at Amritsar, Phagwara, Jallandhar, Kapurthala, Ahmedabad-Currency Chest, Phagwara and Banga.

17. Mr. Pandurang Narayanappa Rathodi, Assistant Manager, Gadag ( Hubli Zone)

Sri Rathodi joined the Bank as a Clerk in March, 1984. He was promoted toOfficer cadre in JMGScale I in October, 2010.

During 33 years of service, he worked at Ranibennur, Gadag, Hirewaddatti, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri, Kotturu and Doopadahalli.

18. Mr. Shinde Amarsinh Balasaheb, Assistant Manager, Wadange (Pune Zone)

Sri Shinde joined the Bank as a Clerk in August, 1984. He became Special Assistant in March, 2008. He was promotedtoOfficercadreinJMGScaleIinApril,2011.

During 33 years of service, he worked at Sholapur, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri, Karad, and Sangi.

19. Mr. Ananda Sadguna Paul C S, Assistant Manager, Ballari Cantonment (Huli Zone)

Sri Paul joined the Bank as a Clerk in August, 1984. He waspromotedtoOfficercadreJMGScaleIinMay,2010.

During 33 years of service, he worked at Girisagar, Bellary, Moka and Sandur.

20. Mr. R Karunanithi, Senior Manager, Zonal Office Thiruchirapalli

Sri Karunanithi joined the Bank as a Clerk in October, 1984.HewaspromotedtoOfficercadreJMGScaleIinFebruary, 1998. He became Manager in MMG Scale II in November, 2005 and Senior Manager in Scale III in August, 2012.

During 33 years of service, he worked at Madurai-Vengalakadai Street, Westmasi Street, Pollachi, Keerambur,


Do not wish to be anything but what you are; and to be that, perfectly. – St. Francis de Sales

Karur, Kolkata-Canning Street, Chennai-Teynampet, Nungambakkam, Anna Nagar and Chennai - Currency Chest.

21. Mr. R Babu, Assistant Manager, Chennai-LIC Hub (Chennai Zone)

Sri Babu joined the Bank in February, 1986 as a Peon. He was promoted as Clerk in November, 1991 and as OfficerinJMGScaleIinSeptember,2012.

During 31 years of service, he worked at Keerambur, Chennai-George Town, Vellore, Chennai-Anna Nagar, Mylapore, Velacherry, Indiranagar, Currency Chest and Service.

B. VOLUNTARY RETIRMENT

The following members retired from the Bank voluntarily,

under Regulation 29 of Pension Regulations during April,

2017:

1. Mr. Mula Ramlingeswara Sarma, Assistant

Manager, Kakinada-Bhanugudi Juction (Vijayawada

Zone)

Sri Sarma joined the Bank as a Clerk in September,

1984.HewaspromotedtoOfficercadreJMGScaleIin

September, 2013.

During 33 years of service, he worked at Vizianagaram,

Kakinada, Aratlakatta, Visakhapatnam - Main, K G Rao

Vidya Mandir, MVP Colony and Thimmapurm.

2. Kokane Devappa Yallappa, Manager, Saundalga,

Belgaum Zone.

Sri Kokane, joined the Bank as a Clerk in November, 1986.

HewaspromotedtoOfficercadreinJMGScaleIinMarch,

2002. He became Manager in MMG Scale II in May, 2016.

During 31 years of service, he worked at Panjim, Mapuca,

Belgaum-Tilakawadi, Delhi-Kirthi Nagar, New Delhi-

Mahavir Nagar, Nipani, Belgaum-Retail Loan Centre,

Benakanahalli, Panjim - Retail Loan Centre and Goa-

Siolim.

3. Mr. Jakkilinki Janaki Ram,

Assistant Manager, Rajahmundry-

Danavaipeta Vijayawada Zone.

Sri RJanaki am joined the Bank

in November, 1996 as Typist cum

Clerk.Hewaspromoted toOfficer

cadre in JMG Scale I in October,

2006.

During 21 years of service, he worked at Gondal, Nagaram,

Secunderabad-M. G. Road, New Delhi-Service, Sarita

Vihar, Hyderabad-Mehdipatnam, Shamshabad, KPHB

Colony and Rajahmundry - Main.

CBOO thanks all these members for their support and

co-operation and wishes them a happy, healthy and

contended retired life.

1. IBA Approved Revised Format Aadhaar Number Seeding Into Multiple Bank Account (Priority Sector Division, HO Circular No. 226/2017 dated

18.04.2017)

IBA has modified the consent form currently being obtainedtoseedAadhaarnumberinaspecificaccount.Themodifiedform,toseedAadhaarnumberforalltheexisting and proposed/future accounts with the Bank, is furnished in the Annexure to the circular.

2. Non-adherence to CCCK Scheme guidelines – Observations of Internal Auditors(Priority Sector Division, HO, Circular No. 227/2017 dated

18.04.2017)

During the course of regular inspection of the Branches, Internal Auditors have pointed out serious irregularities in CCCK loans disbursed. Therefore, Branches have been advised to strictly adhere to the Scheme Guidelines and comply with all the terms and conditions of the scheme

before sanctioning/ disbursing the credit facility.

3. Financing Bee keeping activities

(Priority Sector Division, HO, Circular No. 228/2017 dated

19.04.2017)

In view of the crucial/vital role of bee keeping in increasing

CiRCULaR ROUND Up


There is time for speaking and a time for being still. – William Caxton

crop productivity and enhancing farmers’ income, Branches to explore the possibilities for extending credit support to bee keeping activity. Other details are furnished in the circular.

4. Legal Decisions Affecting the Bankers(LSD, HO, Circular No. 232/2017 dated 19/04/2017)

As per the decision by Delhi High Court, bank is not expected to undertake inquiry at the stage of invocation of Bank Guarantee to ascertain if the invocation is for genuine reasons. Invocation has to be validly made in accordance with the terms and conditions of the BG.

5. Circle Head/Zonal Head/Deputy Zonal Head’s Branch Visit Report Format and Reporting System(P&D Division, HO Circular No. 233/2017 dated 19/04/2017)

Details are furnished in the circular on the revised format of Circle Head/Zonal Head/ Deputy Zonal Head’s Branch Visit Report and the revised reporting system.

6. Financial Literacy week – June 5 – 9, 2017 (Priority Sector Division, HO Circular No. 241/2017 dated

24.04.2017)

RBI has advised to conduct Financial Literacy week from June 5th to 9th. The Literacy week will focus on four broad themes viz., KYC, exercising Credit Discipline, Grievances RedressalandGoingDigital.Branches/Officestotakenoteof the same for strict compliance.

7. CGTMSE – Modifications in the existing operational guidelines(MSME Division, HO Circular N.: 243/2017 dated 25.04.2017)

• FurnishingofUdyogAadhaarnumberinGuaranteeapplication form is mandatory w. e. f. 01.05.2017.

• Payment ofGuarantee fees toCGTMSE should bethrough CMS Menu only w. e. f. 01.04.2017.

8. Corp Schemes Retail Loans – Need to Assign Correct CIS Code(Retail Lending Division, HO Circular No. 244/2017 dated

25.04.2017)

Retail Loans extended under Corp Schemes qualify for classificationunderPrioritySector/MSMESectorbasedontheactivity/purpose.Henceproperclassificationandassigning relevant Credit Information Code (CIS) for loans sanctioned under various Corp Schemes needed. Revised

cut off limit under Priority/MSME sector for Corp Scheme Loans is communicated in the circular.

9. Legal decisions affecting bankers - Trust cannot be a Consumer and a complainant under Consumer Protection Act (Legal Services Division, HO Circular No. 245/2017 dated

25.04.2017)

A Trust cannot be a consumer and a complainant under Consumer Protection Act as it is not a person. Consequently,itcannotfileaconsumerdispute.

10. Vigilance issues – systems and procedures(Vigilance Division, HO Circular No. 246/2017 dated 25.04.2017)

In view of the loan related irregularities recently reported at various Branches of the Bank, all staff members are requested to ensure that Bank’s Systems and Procedures are followed meticulously at all times make proper use of Vigilance Tools and Whistle Blower Policy. Some of the Vigilance Tools available for prevention of irregularities/frauds are furnished in the circular.

11. Application for Education Loans through Vidya Lakshmi Portal (Retail Lending Division, HO Circular No. 247/2017 dated 25.04.2017)

All applications for education loan have to be through Vidya Lakshmi Portal. Applications received in physical form have to be entered in Vidya Lakshmi Portal. Legacy cases from 15.08.2015 are to be uploaded on Vidya Lakshmi Portal latest by 30.09.2017.

12. Amendment to Karnataka Stamp Act – Validity of Stamps (Legal Services Division, Ho Circular No. 251/2017 dated

03.05.2017)

The Karnataka Stamp Act is amended with effect from 01.04.2017. In the State of Karnataka, any Stamps purchased shall be valid for a period of 6 months from the date of purchase or 6 months from the date of commencement of Amendment Act 2017, whichever is later.

13. Issuance of fresh notice under section 13 (2) of SARFAESI Act(Legal Services Division, HO, Circular No. 252/2017 dated

03.05.2017)

The notice under section 13 (2) of SARFAESI Act, issued


The best guide in life is strength. – Swami Vivekananda

afresh shall specificallymention that the earliernoticestands withdrawn. In the event of the death of the Borrower/Guarantor/Mortgager, after issuing notice under section 13 (2), fresh notice should be issued to the legal heirs of the deceased.

14. Deletion of advocates/valuers involved in fraud/committing irregularities(Legal Services Division, HO, Circular No. 253/2017 dated

03.05.2017)

Branches should take all necessary steps to delete the name of the Advocates/Valuers who have submitted defective/false Legal Opinion/Valuation reports, respectively.

15. CGTMSE – Payment of ASF/AGF – Modification in the existing procedure(MSME Division, HO Circular No. 255/2017 dated 04.05.2017)

GuidelineshavebeenissuedtoZonalOfficesformakingASF/AGF payment for the FY 2017-2018 and for online verificationofAnnualServiceFee(ASF)/AnnualGuaranteeFee (AGF) generated by CGTMSE. The last date for completionofthetaskbytheZonalOfficesis10.06.2017.Other details are furnished in the circular.

16. The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance 2017(Legal Services Division, HO, Circular No. 260/2017 dated 08.05.2017)

Section 35AA and Section 35AB are inserted to Banking Regulation Act, 1949 by which Central Government may authorise RBI for issuing directions to Banking Companies to initiate insolvency resolution process. RBI may issue directions to Banking Companies for resolution of stressed assets.

17. The Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016 (Legal Services Division, HO Circular No. 261/2017 dated

08.05.2017)

The Government of India has enacted the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016. Details are furnished in the circular.

18. Central Information Commission’s decision on seeking similar information through repeated RTI applications(Legal Services Division, HO Circular No. 263/2017 dated

09.05.2017)

The Central Information Commission has observed that there is no scope of repeating queries under RTI Act.

Repetition shall be ground for refusal.

19. Bringing or attempting to bring external pressure on matters relating to service conditions by employees(Human Resource Management – Personnel Administration

Division, HO Circular No. 266/2017 09.05.2017)

All the employees have once again been reminded to desist from bringing any outside pressure, including political pressure on the Executives/Top Management seeking undue favours in matters relating to transfer, promotions and other service conditions, failing which, such an act on the part of the employee/s will be viewed seriously.

20. Scheme of Delegation of Lending Powers – Modification in Powers In Respect of Loans Under Agriculture(Credit Division, HO Circular No. 267/2017 dated 10.05.2017)

Powers to sanction loans under CCCKL, CKFM, SRDE, CKFLS and Loans to establish Agri Clinics & Agri Business Centres has been reduced with effect from 11.05.2017, as detailed in the circular.

21. Financial Inclusion: Waiver of folio charges on BCOD accounts (Priority Sector Division, HO Circular No. 268/17 dated 11.05.2017)

The Bank has taken a decision to waive the folio charges on BCOD accounts, existing and future, at all Branches and also waiver of various amounts of folio charges in BCOD accounts treated as Seepage of Income at different Branches pending for recovery, with immediate effect, as approved by the Board of the Bank.

22. Enhancement of BCOD limit - Sanctioning power given to Zonal Heads (Priority Sector Division, HO Circular No. 270/2017 dated

11.05.2017)

As per the above circular, Zonal Heads are authorised to sanction BCOD limit up to a maximum of Rs. 1.00 lakh on case to case basis.

23. Opening of Joint Account by Pensioners with First Name of the Pensioner(Government Business Division, HO Circular No. 274/2017 dated

12.05.2017)

Wherever joint account is permitted to be held with the spouseoftheretiringemployees,thefirstnameshouldbeofthePensionertoavoiddifficultiesatthetimeoffilingIncome Tax Returns as the Income Tax is assessed on the income of the Pensioner and not of the spouse.


Choose to be happy. It is a way of being wise. - Colette

PSUs may take their business to Air India

At least five public sector undertaking have indicatedto Air India that they are willing to take their business to the national carrier. The container Corporation of India, NPTC, GAIL, IOC and the India Trade Promotion Organisation have expressed their willingness to transfer their international and domestic bookings to Air India. This is in response to an appeal by Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, who had sent personalised letters to the chiefs of various schemes of the airline and advertising its position as the only Indian carrier to be part of the Star Alliance, the largest global airline network. This could be an attractive proposition for corporate travelers, as membership brings a gamut of features such as worldwide connectivity, access to lounges and through check-ins, among other.

Lohani’s letter also mentions Air India’s special fare scheme, under which fares of the airline match second class AC fares on Rajdhani trains. It also points out that the State-Owned airline offers a baggage allowance of 25 kg ondomesticflightsandhasalsorevampeditsfrequentflyerscheme. A team from Air India will make presentations to the PSU or business house. The national carrier is keen on biting off a large chunk of the Rs 4000 crore-a-year corporate travel market, a segment in which the airline has not been able to capture much business, an Air India officialsaid,decliningtogetintospecifics.


FATCA Compliance - Your NPA A/c will Not Get Blocked

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority has clarified thatNPS accounts of investorswhohavenot submitted the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)selfcertificationwillnotbeblocked.Theregisteredemail addresses of NPS Investors on Thursday, comes as a relief to some 40 lakh NPS investors. These investors were warned that if they failed to submit a physical signed self-certificationoftheFATCAbyApril30,theirNPSaccountswould be blocked. The PFRDA says it will issue fresh guidelines shortly. Observers say the FATCA declaration should not be offline as it will unnecessarily add to paperwork. Besides, the insistence on a physical document is an anachronism at a time when the government is pushing everything to the digital format. Mutual funds

MisCeLLaNyaccept online submission of the FATCA declaration. “It is a self FATCA declaration process, and doesnot require any documents to be submitted,” says Manoj Nagpal, CEO of Outlook Asia Capital.

- The Economic Times, 05/08/2017

1.52 lakh casual, 45000 part-time jobs lost post- demonetisation

As many as 1.52 lakh casual and 46,000 part-time jobs were lost during October 2016 to January 2017. This is in spite of eight key sectors of the economy adding 1.22 lakh workers during the quarter, against 32,000 in the previous quarter, according to the Labour Bureau. The Quarterly Employment Survey (fourth series), which includes the demonetisation period, saw the maximum decrease of casual jobs in manufacturing (1.13 lakh) and IT/BPO (20,000). The loss of part-time work was also highest in manufacturing. Overall, there were positive changes in manufacturing (83,000), trade (7,000), transport (1,000), IT/BPO sector (12,000), education (18,000) and health (2,000),accordingtothesurvey,forwhichfieldworkfordata collection was done during January-March 2017. “However, the construction sector experienced a negative change (1,000) in estimated employment over last quarter,” said the report, adding that there was no change in the accommodation and restaurant sector.

Out of the overall increase in the number of employees in the quarter, regular workers accounted for 1.39 lakh, and contract workers, 1.24 lakh. In a positive development, 97.66 percent of the surveyed establishments said they maintained a record of employment, with IT/BPO and health sectors reporting 100 percent records. Job generation continues to be a key challenge for the Narendra Modi government that won with a poll promise to generate 2.5 crore jobs a year. At present, an estimated 1.2 crore persons join the labour force every year in India.


Aadhaar- based payments fuelling privacy concerns

The proliferation of aadhaar-based payments has lead to a lot of question being raised on privacy. Will your local mobile recharge vendor or a petty shop owner have access to all your data? What if your biometrics get hacked? Such questions are among those that the UIDAI has to answer as it steams ahead with facilitating Aadhaar based transactions on India’s 25 lakh plus PoS terminals. Data


Zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse. - Proverb

SecurityCouncilof IndiaCEORamaVedashreeflaggedsome concerns, when she told TOI, “When Aadhaar enabled payment systems proliferates, host of data is deployed at merchants of which some can be phone-based, some through PoS devices. When an entire ecosystem is so closely connected, security by design becomes default.” Cyber-security experts have for long held that PoS machines are usually the easiest target for hacks. “For every one ATM hack, we see 20 PoS machine frauds. Many of the complaints we receive are from customers, who had their data compromised, by using their debit cards at petrol bunks, shopping malls and cinema theatres,” said P Ravi Sekharan, assistant commissioner, cyber crime cell, Chennai City Police.

“When debit card data is hacked, there is a considerable financialloss-butitstopsthere.Yourentirelifeisnotinsomeone else’s hands. But with Aadhaar now being linked to PAN, GST registration, civil supplies’ amenities, ration card, an Aadhaar data theft could have drastic impact and completely paralyse someone’s life,” said a cyber crime official,whodidnotwanttobeidentified.Withdecoders,skimmers, machine readers stealing customer data has become all too easy. When Aadhaar was conceptualised, itwasmeanttofacilitatedirectbenefittransfers.However,it has metamorphed into an enabler for digital payments and this has cyber security experts concerned. “If your Facebook or bank account is hacked, you can reset your password.Butwhenyourfingerprintsarestolen, thereisnoreset.Theyarepermanentidentificationmarkers,and once snagged, it is out of your control. When your gym, mobile phone company, and doctor all have your biometric details, remediation of the hack will prove difficult, ifnot impossible,”saidNitinBhatnagar,cybersecurity consultant.

- The Times of India, 06/05/2017

Pink slips to 500-600 Tata Tele employees

TataTeleserviceshasfiredbetween500and600employeesto tideover thedifficult times in thehyper-competitivetelecom market. As many as 500-600 employees have been impacted by the layoffs in sales and other related functions, two people familiar with the matter said. The lay-offs are across locations, they said, adding that the severance package being offered to the employees impacted by the decision is one month’s salary for every year of service. An e-mail sent to Tata Teleservices did not elicit a response. Sources in the company said that

these are challenging times for the telecom industry. Tata Teleservices spearheads Tata Group’s presence in the Indian telecom market. The company, along with the listed arm Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd has presence in 19 telecom circles in the country. It offers integrated telecom solutions to its customers across wireline and wireless networks on platform like GSM, CDMA and 3G. As per data of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), Tata’s mobile subscriber base stood at 51.2 million as on February 28, 2017.


Don’t publish personal data, Aadhaar numbers of taxpayers: CBDT to officials

WithAadhaarnowmandatoryforfilingincometaxreturnsand for Permanent Account Numbers (PAN), the Central BoardofDirectTaxes (CBDT)hasasked itsofficials toensure that personal data of taxpayers is not leaked. “It is requested that any act of publishing the personal identity or information like Aadhaar number and demographic details along with personal sensitive information such as bank details, in contravention of the Aadhaar Act 2016 and the Information Technology Act, 2000 be refrained with immediate effect,” said the CBDT in an internal circular. About 1.11 crore of the over 24.6 crore PAN cards have already been linked with Aadhaar. It also stressed that any such information that may already have been published must be withdrawn immediately and the order must be followed in future as well. The move follows a recent letter by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology to all nodal Ministries that personal and financial information of beneficiaries receivingwelfareunder various schemes must not be published.


When office boys get ESOPs too

It’srarethatacompanyrewardsitsofficeboyswithstockoptions. Such a policy has been followed by a few startup firms that have far fewer employees to beginwith ascompared with an established organisation. But at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, which has 3,800 employees, a good performance cycle this year has provided its employees—includingtheofficeboys—areasontocheer.All employees who completed a year in service have been provided with ESOPs of MOFSL’s group company, Aspire Home Finance.


He is not laughed at who laughs at himself first.

WILL & GOAL

To succeed, you must have tremendous

perseverance, tremendous will. “ I will drink

the ocean,” says the persevering soul. “At my

will mountains will crumble.” Have that sort of

energy, that sort of will, work hard and you will

reach the goal.

– Swami Vivekananda

Around85%ofthetotalstrengthofthediversifiedfinancial

servicesfirmhasbeencoveredundertheESOPscheme.

Of these, all of its white collar staff who’ve completed a

year in service have been issued ESOPs. The quantum

offered varies based on the tenure and designation of

the employee in the organisation. Sudhir Dhar, director

& head (HR & admin), MOFSL, told TOI, “It is our strong

belief that our employees are our growth drivers and our

competitive advantage. We have allotted employee stock

options from one of our fastest growing businesses ‘Aspire

HomeFinance’.Rightfromtheofficeboystillthedirectors,

everyone who’s been part of this wonderful journey has

been rewarded.”

In fiscal 2017, MOFSL posted strong growth across

businesses.Whilehousingfinancewasup160%year-

on-year (YoY), asset management business grew 68% YoY

and capital market businesses increased 40% YoY. Aspire,

whichprovideslong-termhousingfinanceassistanceto

lower and middle income families towards purchase of

affordable housing units, is expanding its presence to

become a pan-India player. By offering ESOPs across levels,

Dhar believes the company has empowered its employees

to ascertain the future of their investments by continuous

efforts to add to the growth of the company so that their

wealth too enhances in the process. Most organisations

offer ESOPs only to top-rung managers. The only other

firmthatoffersstockoptions toall levelsofemployees

ishousingfinancecompanyHDFC.Commentingonthe

MOFSL ESOP offer to employees, Rituparna Chakraborty,

executiveVP,TeamLeaseServices,astaffingfirm,said,

“That’s very rare. It augurs well for the future if this

becomes a more acceptable trend.” Citrus Pay, which was acquiredbyPayU,hadreportedlyofferedoneofitsofficeboys stock options.


Google India is most sought-after employer: Survey

Google India has been named as the country’s most

attractive employer to work for the second consecutive year and despite slowdown, the IT sector continues to be the most preferred sector to work for in the country. These

findingscamefromRandstadEmployerBrandResearch,which covers 75 percent of the global economy with 26

participating countries and around 1.6 lakh respondents worldwide. Apart from Google, sector-wise, Amazon India was the company of choice for employees working in the e-commerce sector, ITC Ltd for FMCG, and Philips India for Consumer and Healthcare. However, in the survey, 56 percent of the respondents have pointed out that job role is more important, than employer brand. Interestingly, working for the Indian IT sector came up tops when compared to other sectors such as BFSI, FMCG or retail.

This is coming at a time when the $155-billion Indian IT sectorhasgrownat8.6percentinthe2016fiscalandisstaring at global macroeconomic uncertainties like Brexit, change in visa policies and rapid technology shifts. Despite this, around 65 percent of the workforce preferred working in the IT sector. But 70 percent of the workforce wanted to join the IT sector in 2016. BFSI and retail and FMCG, followed it up with 63 percent and 62 percent, respectively. Further, the factors influencing the choicesmade byemployeesincludedsalaryandemployeebenefits,followedby good work-life balance and job security. Similar to last year,thisyeartoo,salaryandemployeebenefitscontinueto be the top driver among the Indian workforce across all profileswhilechoosinganemployer.Thisisfollowedbygood work-life balance and job security.

It is interesting to note that the importance accorded to good work-life balance has increased considerably across allworkprofiles,withthisattributemovinguptosecondposition from number 5, as per last year’s findings. Around 31 percent of employees said that they are not loyal to any one industry or sector and are open to shifting industries. Compensation continues to remain a key driver

in determining employee loyalty to a sector.



A life of ease is a difficult pursuit - William Cowper

AADHAAR DATA LEAK ExPOSES CYBER SECURITY FLAWS

Aadhaar numbers of over 13 crore people and bank

account details of about 10 crore of them have been

leaked through government portals owing to poor security

practices,puttingthesepeopleatriskoffinancialfrauds

as well as identity thefts. According to a report published

by The Center for Internet and Society, four government

websites namely those run by National Social Assistance

Programme under Ministry of Rural Development,

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) run

by Ministry of Rural Development, Daily Online Payment

Reports under NREGA (Govt. of Andhra Pradesh) and

Chandranna Bima Scheme run by Government of Andhra

Pradesh combined were responsible for publicly exposing

personal and Aadhaar details of over 13 crore citizens.

“Based on the numbers available on the websites looked

at, estimated number of Aadhaar numbers leaked through

these four portals could be around 130-135 million and

the number of bank account numbers leaked at around

100millionfromthespecificportalswelookedat,”the

report said. While these numbers are only from two

major government programmes of pensions and rural

employment schemes, other major schemes, who have

also used Aadhaar for DBT could have leaked PII similarly

due to lack of information security practices, the report

warns.

Vulnerable sites

Experts believe that irrespective of government’s narrative

on the security measures taken around protecting

Aadhaar data, the Aadhaar ecosystem used by several

government department remains vulnerable with little

done to track and report misuse. “We are sitting on

a volcano that is about to be burst,” Supreme Court

lawyer and cyber security expert Pawan Duggal told

BusinessLine. “We have no clue of the cyber security

ramificationsofAadhaarand,therefore,massivebreaches

will continue to be reported. As a nation we need to do far

more for cyber security for Aadhaar. Aadhaar was passed

in a great amount of hurry and ignored the cyber security

ramifications,”hesaid.

In a statement issued on March 5 by Ministry of

Electronics and IT, UIDAI said that Aadhaar-based

authentication is robust and secure as compared to

any other contemporary systems. Aadhaar system has

the capability to inquire into any instance of misuse

of biometrics and identity theft and initiate action.

UIDAI uses one of world’s most advanced encryption

technologies in transmission and storage of data. As a

result, during the last seven years, there has been no

report of breach or leak of residents’ data out of UIDAI,

the statement added. When contacted by Business Line,

officialsattheMeitYdidnotimmediatelycommenton

a detailed questionnaire sent via email on how several

leaks were possible despite the government being so

confidentaboutAadhaarsecurity.

21 leaks reported so far

As of April 27, at least 21 leaks have been reported about

data breaches. And these are only reported incidents.

“The UIDAI instead of using crowd sourced resources for

reporting and plugging the security holes has responded

in an aggressive defensive mode. The personal data in

question, in some cases, include names, addresses,

date of birth, Aadhaar card numbers, PAN card details,

religion and caste. All of this information is available in

the form of Microsoft Excel sheets and can be obtained

by a simple Google search as reported recently by some

media outlets,” said Mishi Choudhary, Legal Director at

Software Freedom Law Center.

“We do not know if UIDAI itself monitoring these breaches.

The Aadhaar Act itself needs several amendments with

amandatoryrequirementtodiscloseinspecifiedways,

anybreachofthesecurityofthedata,asdefined,toany

citizen whose unencrypted personal information was,

or is reasonably believed to have been, acquired by an

unauthorised person,” she added. Experts believe that

if the state is not ready or well equipped, it should not

roll out schemes that rely on insecure systems. Sunil

Abraham, Executive Director of Centre for Internet and

Society, said theuse of biometrics data for financial

serviceswillmakefinancialfraudseasierthanbeforeas

itisprovenhoweasyitistocopysomeone’sfingerprints.



Trouble is what gives one his chance to discover his strength or lack of it. – Frank A Clark

BRILLIANT

A gossip is a person who talks to me about

others.

A bore is a person who talks to me about himself.

A brilliant conversationalist is a person who

talks to me about myself.

KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM

Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one, have oft times no connection

Knowledge dwells in heads replete with thoughts of other men; wisdom in minds attentive to their own

Knowledge is proud that he had learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more .

- William Cowper

ALL YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOOUT… VVPAT

CLassROOM

be tallied with the buttons pressed on the EVMs. These printed slips can be counted to verily the results. At the moment, EVMs do not have this feature of cross checking. The use of VVPATs becomes important as a number of political parties have raised questions about the EVMs being tamper proof. Though the EC has maintained that the EVMs cannot be tampered with, the use of VVPATs will ensure that there is greater transparency in the voting process.

Why should care?

As a part of the democratic process, every voter has the right to know that his or her vote went to the candidate chosen. VVPATs will ensure this and further strengthen theelectoralprocessincountry.Itisalsoperhapsthefinalstep in making the voting process as transparent as it can get. Changes in the law over the decades have sought to make elections in the country fool-proof. In 1989, the law was amended to give the EC the power to countermand election if it was proved that a candidate had used muscle power to win.

This put an end to booth capturing. The introduction of VVPATs will give the EC the proof to back its claim of holding free and fair elections. It will put to rest the allegations raised by various political parties about EVMs being tampered with as was seen after the recent Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

The bottom line

The proof of the voting is in the printing.


The Cabinet on April 19 agreed to release over Rs.3,100

crore so that the Election Commission (EC) could procure 1.6million VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail)machines. These can hopefully be used in all polling stations in the General Elections in 2019. It’s been seven yearssincetheECfirstmootedtheuseofthesemachines.Based on consultations with political parties the EC was of the view that VVPATs will help ensure transparency in thevotingprocess.Thesemachineswerefirstusedinaby-election in Nagaland in 2013. Small numbers of VVPATs have also been used in other elections in the country.

What is it?

A VVPAT is a machine that is attached to the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). A voter casts his or her vote on the EVM as is currently being done. The VVPAT attached to the EVM generates a paper slip which has the name of the candidate voted for and the symbol of his party. This is recorded in the machine’s control unit. A printer is attached to the Balloting unit and kept in the voting compartment. The paper slip remains visible on the VVPAT for seven seconds through a transparent window. The paper slip can later be retrieved and tallied with the button pressed in the EVM. The use of VVPATs falls under Rule 49A of the Coduct of Elections Rules, 1961, which provides that every EVM shall have a control unit and a balloting unit. It further states that a printer with a drop box may also be attached to a voting machine for printing a paper trail of the vote.

Why is it important?

In case of any dispute, the paper slip in the VVPATs can


After digestion one who feeds, his body, no medicine needs. - Thirukkural

An extended conversation with cancer specialist Dr. Ramakant Deshpande instantly makes one acutely aware of how little one knows about this terrifying disease. Thefirstfact:Itisnotthatterrifying.Facttwo,ifcaughtearly, that is. Awareness is, therefore, all that is more important. Our ignorance about cancer exists, even though it is now the leading cause of death in the world. Global cancer deaths are projected to increase 60 per cent from 8.8 million deaths per year now t0 13 million in the next two decades. New cases of cancer will rise to 22 million by 2030.

These statistics prove how crucial keeping ourselves safe from cancer is. Dr Deshpande, an expert in lung cancer and a surgeon at the Asian Cancer Institute, Sion, North-Central Mumbai, stresses the importance of understanding the everyday causes of cancer, that stem from our lifestyle. Awarded the Padma Shri in 2014, Dr Deshpande, who trained at the Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai and at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Center, New York, is the vice-chairman at the Asian Cancer Institute, one of the top facilities in the country. He has conducted, he reveals when asked to estimate, nearly 15,000 to 20,000 major surgeries in his career spanning three-and-a-half decades. Dr Deshpande, in this interview with Rediff.com’s Vaihayasi Pande Daniel, explains the vital importance of genetic testing for cancer and, most important, how to protect yourself from cancer.

What is the biggest myth about cancer that you constantly deal with?

That cancer is incurable. Cancer is not incurable. If diagnosed at an early stage, it can be totally cured. The person can have a totally normal life span, which is almost71yearsforafive-year-oldchildtoday.InWesterncountries it is said: If you are 24 today -- if you don’t have any (bad) habits or co-morbidity, for example hypertension (high blood pressure) or diabetes at a young age - your life expectancy should normally be 100, in a developed country. It is our doing - or the atmosphere, pollution, external factors -- which can reduce this particular longevity. The biggest problem in India is that people feel that cancer is incurable... It is an ailment which comes, which can be treated. In an early stage, you can actually treat it very well, based on its nature, its stage, whatever. Then you can expect the person to live a normal life. Then you get an intermediate stage: Where the cancer

has grown. But not grown to a terminal advanced kind of stage. You can (still) do a lot and add a lot of quality of life, prolonging life to a substantial extent.

Even in advanced cancers today - many cancers, not all. For example 30 years back, for a lung cancer, a stage 4 malignancy,withfluidinthelungs,wesaid,‘Alright,gohome and get lucky.’ It was six months to nine months. That would be an average lifespan. Today you can actually identify if they have a genetic mutation. Some of these are actionable mutations (that is, with the potential of perhaps responding to targeted therapy). By giving medicines you canprolongtheirlifeforfivetosevenyears.Maybelonger.The methodology of treatment is still (evolving). What you actually land up doing is: You may not be able to cure the disease in many (instances), but you can actually make it a chronic disease. For example: You cannot cure hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes. But you can convert them into chronic diseases.

Is it typical for anyone without family history to get cancer? And vice versa: Do people with family history have a very high risk of getting cancer?

If you really analyse family history in India today, there is no family where either a member of the family, or a firstrelative-likeuncles,aunts,somebodyortheother-would have not suffered from cancer, at some age or the other. There is no family which is totally clear of cancer. There are certain families in which certain cancers are more common, for example breast cancer. It does not meanthatthenextgenerationisdefinitelyboundtogetcancer. If you analyse the incidence of, say, breast cancer, among all girls born today in India: 1 in 27 will get breast cancer in a lifetime, which is (till the) age of 71 to 73. This is the current statistics in India (it is 1 in 7 in a developed country like the US).

The moment more than three members of a family - say, mother, maternal aunt, or grandmother -- get cancer, it means there is a preponderance of breast cancer in that family. When you have that kind of (preponderance), your breast cancer incidence is likely to increase, double. Even then it will be 1 in 14. That means 13 people will not get breast cancer in the same family. There are certain genetic predispositions. There are genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2. If you have that positive in your body, your chance of getting breast cancer in BRCA1, by the age of, say, 50, is almost about 70 to 80 per cent -- your

heaLTh waTCh

‘CANCER IS NOT INCURABLE’

Officers’ Voice, June 2017 31Officers’ Voice, June 2017 31

odds get narrowed down. In that case, what you can do is: Complete your family early, get married, have a child.

What are BRCA1 and BRCA2?

Human genes BRCA1 (also called breast cancer 1) and BRCA2 (also called breast cancer 2) have the capacity to manufacture proteins that suppress tumours and mend damaged DNA, maintaining the stability of a cell’s genetic matter.

If these genes get distorted - either because of mutation or alteration - and do not manufacture, or manufacture dysfunctional tumour suppressing proteins, it will be unable to repair its DNA. This could lead to further genetic modificationsandsubsequentlycancer.

Mutations of BRCA2 can also bring about a higher risk of ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancers. Similarly, there are other genes that relate to colon and blood cancers.

Like in the case of American actor Angelina Jolie?

Yes. Finish your family and all that. May be by the age of 40 you can actually have your breasts removed. Now having breastsremoveddoesn’tmeanyougototallyflat.Todaythere are techniques available in plastic surgery. They take out the entire breast tissue and reconstruct those breasts using prosthesis. Cosmetically the lady will be exactly the way she was before. Or you can actually have certain medication, called PARP inhibitors (drug inhibitors of the enzyme poly ADP ribose polymerase or PARP. Many cancers are dependent on PARP and taking inhibitors helps to not get cancer), which help these kind of patients to not develop cancer. There is also an incidence - almost 50 percent - of developing ovarian cancer in these patients.

In the same patients?

In the same ones who are BRCA 1 positive, we tell them alsotofinishtheirfamilyby40andthenhavetheirovariesremoved (too). These are all preventive methodologies to reduce the chances of getting breast cancer.

So your answer is a bit of both? The odds of people with family history getting cancer vary depending on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 factor?

Yes.

Is testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 factor - to check for gene mutation in the DNA - very expensive in India?

No, it is about Rs 20,000.

It is worthwhile? Very few people in India know of it.

Definitelyworthwhile.Thisisnotawildshotinthedark.Therearespecificindicationstoundergothisparticularthing. This is not a routine haemoglobin kind of test. The person should see a genetic counselor who will identify if there is a need for doing this. That is how it should be. Now everybody has an Aadhaar Card. A time will probably

come, 20 years from now, when we will have our genetic profilealso.Soyouwillknowifyouhaveapredispositionfor a malignancy. (Or if) you have a weakness for something. There could be genes, which if you are exposed to (say) meat, or something like that, you may have a higher incidence of developing bowel cancer or something like that. The best thing for those who have that kind of genetic abnormality should be to avoid non-vegetarian food. You can actually take (these kinds of) precautions.

So does that mean if you have a relative who had, say, colon cancer, you should test your children for BRCA1 or BRCA2 with respect to colon cancer, too in the same way as breast cancer?

No, no. There are other genes. BRCA is not connected with colon cancer. BRCA is only connected with breast cancer and ovarian cancer. And BRCA2 is in prostate cancer in men. There is a test for ovarian cancer. There is a test for colonic cancer. They are all genetic tests.

They all cost the same?

Approximately.

For any of these tests: If there is some member in your family with a history of cancer, is it very important to test? Very few know that.

It is better we get it done. Should get that thing checked out. It is quite possible to have a BRCA positive mother and a BRCA negative daughter. That’s also a possibility. So, then, you don’t have to go through the removal of the breast and ovaries and all that.

So even in the other categories one should do genetic testing wherever possible?

There are certain malignancies where the genetic connection is known. The moment you have that kind of cancer (in your family) your oncologist who will be aware of these possibilities, will put you in touch with a genetic counselor and then you should have that genetic testing done. That is the reason why it is always better to go to a centre which treats malignancy rather than go to an individual.

For which cancers can one do genetic testing in India?

Colon, Breast, Ovaries, Prostate and certain blood cancers- lymphomas, leukemias -- which will have some sort of genetic (predisposition), as well as prognostically. Youcanfindoutwhethertheyarelikelytodowellornotlikely to do well. You can do genetic testing for advanced cancerstofindoutifthereisatargetedtherapyavailable.For example, in lung cancers, if the genetic mutation is positive, you have actionable mutation where you can use specificdrugsandprolongsurvivalfromafewmonthstoquite a few years.

- Rediff News


I have come to my parent's house...My husband is busy handling a new

software in his branch....

He is on his way to the branch.... his branch is changing over to new software from today...

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