Letters: PSBs woes

This refers to T N Ninan's column "Reinvent state-owned banks" (Weekend Ruminations, November 23). The author's call to public sector banks (PSBs) to reinvent themselves by changing their culture of functioning is appropriate. But the moot question is: can they do it? Would their political boss give permission? The ills of PSBs can be traced in large part to their parentage. The author's comparison of PSBs and their private sector counterparts reminded me of the banks' exposure to Kingfisher Airlines. ICICI Bank washed off its exposure by transferring it to Srei Infrastructure Finance, even as the State Bank of India struggled with the airline.

PSBs have been used by the government for enriching its interests. Come elections and there will be further interference. We can already see that with the finance ministry asking PSBs to write off farm loans of more than Rs 70,000 crore in 2008. PSBs can only be set free when the government's ownership gets diluted to minority.

K V Rao Bangalore

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