Equal match

Arundhati Bhattacharya had said a few months ago that merger of public sector banks should be between equals

Though management gurus have often said there is no such thing as merger of equals, bankers appear to have great faith in the dictum. When asked for his views on bank mergers, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Y V Reddy said: “It should be a merger of equals. Otherwise, I am reminded of George Bernard Shaw getting a marriage proposal from a beautiful lady...” While he was referring to an exchange widely believed to have taken place between Isadora Duncan and playwright George Bernard Shaw, he was repeating what former State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya had said a few months ago—that the merger of public sector banks should be between equals.