Privatising PSBs
Privatising Public Sector Banks As part of her budget speech, Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Parliament that two public sector banks (PSBs) and one public sector general insurer will be privatised during FY 2021-22. Later on when she was interviewed in one of the news channels, s he said there was a sentiment around public sector banks that they could not be "touched" but that can not be the guiding principle for the government. She also remarked that while more public sector banks are welcome, they have to be functionally strong, professionally managed and those that can meet the demands of a growing aspirational India. She also said that the country needs efficient banks for the economy to take the next step and return to the growth path, and cannot have laggards. While the decision to privatise banks, which were nationalised in 1969 and 1979, is the prerogative of the Parliament, FM did not appear to have taken the contributions of the PSBs in...