•Saubhik ChakraBarti: What should a single bank look at?

Bankers should move away from the fear that there is a shortage of money. Then, there must be confidence that the economy is not going into a tailspin. And that is the concern today because then the banks start pricing risk higher. Commercial vehicles, autos, real estate and many other sectors are beginning to see dramatic drops in the sales lines, we need to create a certain base level of confidence. Iron ore exports around the world have stopped. China is not honouring its commitments. As a result, there are 12,000 trucks in Karnataka and no goods to move. What happens? If the economy starts feeling the pressure, there is little we can do. I think it is time that the government comes on the front foot. It should spend on infrastructure like never before. You got to hold this economy from falling in terms of GDP, and that is what governments worldwide have done. I am not talking in terms of a bailout. I agree that India is among the few countries who have nothing to do with bailouts. And yet, we need to spend money at a time like this to hold the confidence that the economy is okay. In many ways, the ability of the private sector in a time like this is always limited. Today, take the top 10 market cap companies in India and compare it with last year’s top 10. One year ago, two out of 10 top market-cap companies in the country were from the public sector. Today, it is 6 out of 10. It is very significant development because in a time like this, the government and only government owned-entities have to make things happen. We are fortunate. It is very perverse logic but when rest of the world moves towards getting government into companies, we already have them.

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