TRACKPAD

Sharing RBI’s plan of having clear and fully provisioned balance sheets of the PSU banks by March 2017, Dr Raghuram Rajan, Governor of RBI stated that the growth in Indian banking sector will not emerge to the full extent unless the clean-up of bank balance sheets is effectively completed.

He was speaking at the banking summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Mumbai. Dr Rajan said that the Asset Quality Review (AQR) initiated by the RBI was necessary to put in place a mechanism for improving the health of the Indian banking system. Expressing his confidence on Indian banks emerging stronger from the AQR process, the RBI Governor said that India needs much healthier banks to strengthen and support higher economic growth.

“Due to higher levels of NPAs and provisioning in Public Sector Banks (PSBs) vis-à-vis the Private Banks, PSBs have curtailed lending leading to more than 10 percentage points difference in growth (compared to Private Banks) in Non-Food Bank Credit as well as to the Agriculture & allied sector and the credit to industry sectors,” he added. The Governor was confident that the Indian banking system will tide over the NPA problem by bringing in more effectiveness in the Joint Lenders Forum (JLF) mechanism, Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR) and 5/25 scheme as well as enactment of the Bankruptcy Law and sufficient capital infusion in PSBs by the Government.

NTPC shall contribute to the government's target of providing 24X7 power for all with focus on renewables. We know the expectation that power sector has with NTPC and our focus will be on optimum generation with focus on cost reduction. This was highlighted by Gurdeep Singh, CMD, NTPC recently at a conference in New Delhi. Conference with the theme ‘Greener Energy & Efficiency - Journey through R&M’ was inaugurated by Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas. Minister appreciated NTPC's role in turnaround of the old inefficient power stations, Shri Pradhan said Talcher Thermal in Odisha was taken over by NTPC and placed in the category of the most efficient power stations with highest PLF in the country. Underlining the need for reaching power to all households in the country he said NTPC shall be playing a major role in it following sustainable practices. He also released proceedings of the Conference compendium of "Near Miss Trip Cases" and presented the Business Excellence awards to Ramagundam, Sipat and Talcher Kaniha Stations of NTPC on the occasion.

In the conference, M. K. Iyer, Member Central Electricity Regulatory Commission said this conference is the most sought after event in the calendar of power sector and appreciated the need for such conferences for sharing of experiences and chalking the way ahead. Conference has participation from the industry representatives from USA, Germany, Japan, Greece, Croatia etc.

Government has electrified 5279 villages across the country till Feb 14 under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna (DDUGJY). Importantly in view of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to nation, on Independence Day, Government of India has decided to electrify remaining 18,452 unelectrified villages within 1000 days i.e. by 01st May, 2018.  The project has been taken on mission mode and strategy for electrification consists of squeezing the implementation schedule to 12 months and also dividing village electrification process in 12 Stage milestones with defined timelines for monitoring. During the current fiscal total 1654 villages were electrified during April 2015 to 14th Aug 2015 and after taking initiative by Government of India for taking it on mission mode, 3625 additional villages have been electrified from 15thAugust 2015 to 14th February.