Topic of the day:-“This Time With Feeling”
The Centre has empowered the Reserve Bank of India to get banks to take tougher steps, including insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings against defaulters, to address the growing volume of bad loans on their books. An ordinance to amend the Banking Regulation Act of 1949 has been issued to quell doubts whether the existing provisions allowed the RBI to direct banks to deal with specific stressed assets. The RBI has also been vested with the power to form oversight committees wherever it deems fit. Currently such committees exist only for loans brought into a scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets, also known as S4A. Now the RBI can bring in such panels to monitor the alphabet soup of other mechanisms for tackling non-performing assets (NPAs) such as SDR (strategic debt restructuring) through the JLFs, or joint lenders’ forums. The hope is that this will let bankers take decisive calls on loan accounts that have turned bad, as an independent oversight committee’s approval could keep investigative agencies off their backs. Bankers may not always have the sectoral expertise to monetise or leverage assets underlying bad loans in the best possible way. Yet, their paralysis on the NPA front, with its collateral impact being the worst bank credit growth recorded in decades, is driven by the fear that they could get themselves implicated for poor lending and monitoring decisions. The success of this latest salvo against bad loans will depend on the fine print on how the ultimate decision — whether to take a haircut on a loan and restructure it or invoke bankruptcy clauses — is arrived at. Perhaps of equal significance is the reshuffle of certain public sector bank officials announced on Friday. This is a clear signal that the NDA government is losing its patience with bankers persisting with a status quoits approach. The ordinance is the latest attempt to resolve the twin balance sheet problem (of indebted borrowers and NPA-burdened lenders) plaguing India’s domestic investment cycle. In 2015, the Prime Minister launched a Gyan Sangam conclave with bankers, and an Indradhanush road map to revitalise public sector banks. Last year, a Bank Board Bureau was set up to recommend the appointment of top bosses at banks and help them develop strategies and plan raising of capital. If the government wants to see a spurt in investment and job-creation, it needs to do more than just pin its hopes on new oversight committees. It must amend the anticorruption law as has been promised for a while now, and accept the need to fix the policy-level stress affecting sectors such as telecom, power and highways. Above all, the government cannot in the same breath argue that the political cost of reforms is dissipating, but that the ‘re-privatisation’ of banks as mooted by the RBI recently is still a holy cow for the Indian polity.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) Quell
Meaning: To stop something, especially by using force.
Example: Police in riot gear were called in to quell the disturbances/unrest.
Synonyms: Conquer, Defeat
Antonyms: Encourage, Compliment
2) Vested
Meaning: Vested shares, pension plans, etc. can be kept by an employee who has worked the necessary number of years for a particular company.
Example: He chose to receive his vested benefits in a single lump-sum payment.
Synonyms: Dressed, Robed
3) Decisive
Meaning: Able to make decisions quickly and confidently, or showing this quality.
Example: You need to be more decisive.
Meaning: Strongly affecting how a situation will progress or end.
Example: These results could prove decisive in establishing the criminal’s identity.
Synonyms: Conclusive, Definite
Antonyms: Ineffective, Trivial
4) Leverage
Meaning: The action or advantage of using a lever.
Example: Using ropes and wooden poles for leverage, they haul sacks of cement up the track.
Meaning: Power to influence people and get the results you want.
Example: If the United Nations had more troops in the area, it would have greater leverage.
Meaning: The relationship between the amount of money that a company owes to banks and the value of the company.
Example: With leverage, the investor’s $100,000 buys $500,000 or more of stock if he wants.
Synonyms: Influence, Advantage
Antonyms: Weakness
5) Paralysis
Meaning: A condition in which you are unable to move all or part of your body because of illness or injury; a situation in which you are unable to take action.
Example: Some nervous disorders can produce paralysis.
Synonyms: Depression, Economic decline
Antonyms: Calm, Increase
6) Collateral
Meaning: Valuable property owned by someone who wants to borrow money, that they agree will become the property of the company or person who lends the money if the debt is not paid back.
Example: She used/put up her house as collateral for a loan.
Synonyms: Indirect, Incident
Antonyms: Different, Important
7) Implicated
Meaning: To show that someone is involved in a crime or partly responsible for something bad that has happened.
Example: Have they any evidence to implicate him in the robbery?
Synonyms: Involved, Suspected
8) Invoke
Meaning: To use a law in order to achieve something, or to mention something in order to explain something or to support your opinion or action.
Example: Police can invoke the law to regulate access to these places.
Synonyms: Conjure, Appeal to
Antonyms: Answer, Reply
9) Plaguing
Meaning: To annoy someone, especially by asking repeated questions.
Example: The children plagued him with questions all through lunch.
Synonyms: Annoy, Disturb
Antonyms: Please, Aid
10) Conclave
Meaning: A private meeting at which the discussions are kept secret.
Example: The qualitative difference is that there’s no effort, no intention to ‘shut down’ the Democratic conclave.
Synonyms: Secret meeting, Huddle
11) Revitalise
Meaning: To give new life, energy, activity, or success to something.
Example: Japanese investment has revitalized this part of Britain.
Synonyms: Refresh, Restore
Antonyms: Break, Damage
12) Spurt
Meaning: To increase or grow very quickly, or to suddenly increase by a particular amount.
Example: Shares of the jewellery store chain spurted $6.
Synonyms: Commotion, Spate
Antonyms: Peace, Continuity
13) Dissipating
Meaning: To (cause to) gradually disappear or waste.
Example: The heat gradually dissipates into the atmosphere.
Synonyms: Deplete, Blow
Antonyms: Build, Hoard
14) Geospatial
Meaning: Relating to information that identifies where particular features are on the earth’s surface, such as oceans and mountains.
Example: A new industry association has arisen to address security-related aspects of geospatial technologies and information.
15) Gesture
Meaning: A movement of the hands, arms, or head, etc. to express an idea or feeling.
Example: She made a rude gesture at the other driver.
Synonyms: Action, Salute
Antonyms: Speech
16) Demonstrate
Meaning: To show or make something clear.
Example: These problems demonstrate the importance of strategic planning.
Meaning: To express or show that you have a particular feeling, quality, or ability.
Example: He has demonstrated a genuine interest in the project.
Meaning: To make a public expression that you are not satisfied about something, especially by marching or having a meeting.
Example: Thousands of people gathered to demonstrate against the new proposals.
Synonyms: Display, Show
Antonyms: Conceal, Disprove
17) Pledged
Meaning: A serious or formal promise, especially one to give money or to be a friend, or something that you give as a sign that you will keep a promise.
Example: I give you this ring as a pledge of my everlasting love for you.
Synonyms: Promised, Guaranteed
18) Indigenously
Meaning: Naturally existing in a place or country rather than arriving from another place.
Example: Are there any species of frog indigenous to the area?
Synonyms: Domestic, Native
Antonyms: Foreign
19) Deterred
Meaning: To prevent someone from doing something or to make someone less enthusiastic about doing something by making it difficult for that person to do it or by threatening bad results if they do it.
Example: These measures are designed to deter an enemy attack.
Synonyms: Avert, Check
Antonyms: Advance, Encourage
20) Constraints
Meaning: Something that controls what you do by keeping you within particular limits.
Example: Financial constraints on the company are preventing them from employing new staff.
Meaning: If you do something under constraint, you do it only because you have been forced to.
Example: They confessed, but only under severe constraint.
Synonyms: Force, Pressure
Antonyms: Deterrent, Freedom