Letters: Generate employment

Nupur Anand's report, "Robots to perform a fifth of internal jobs at ICICI Bank" (September 10) is emblematic of the flawed economic policies adopted by our country and its large institutions. It is ironic that in a labour-surplus economy like India, the chief executive officer of a leading private bank can wax lyrical about the cost benefits driven by the introduction of robots to perform non-value-adding activities. Would these cost benefits be passed on to customers in the form of higher interest rates on deposits? Not really.

Large organisations such as ICICI Bank need to be prodded by the Reserve Bank of India and other regulators to introduce innovations that would generate more employment rather than reduce human involvement. Such private banks charge usurious rates on credit card lending, leading to huge social costs. The least such banks could do to correct this imbalance is to take positive steps towards generation of employment. That would truly be an example of corporate social responsibility.

Srijit Basu, Gurgaon

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