Same difference

It appears Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena thinks quite like Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Or at least their speech writers think and write alike. Recently, speaking at a Punjab National Bank function, Meena asked public sector banks to monitor bad loans and focus on recovery in the wake of deteriorating asset quality. He stressed the need to expedite recovery and highlighted that the deterioration of bad loans raises cost of capital and funds for banks. His lines appear quite similar to what Mukherjee had said at function of another bank recently. “One of the challenges concerns management of NPAs and maintaining profitability. Care should be taken to ensure that there is no further deterioration of the asset quality,” Mukherjee had said.