Grooming PSBs
The Centre needs to tone up governance of public sector banks, before privatising them
The Budget announcement on the proposed privatisation of two public sector banks has drawn polarised reactions. Bidding up the Nifty PSU Bank index by over 30 per cent since the Budget, the stock market seems to believe that privatisation is a magic pill to address performance woes at PSBs (public sector banks). The All India Bank Employees’ Union, pointing to recent failures at YES Bank and Lakshmi Vilas Bank, disputes the notion that privatisation can make any difference to PSB efficiency. As always, the truth lies somewhere in between and it is good that the Centre has reiterated its intent of not hurrying through the process and strengthening PSBs before ceding control.