homefinance NewsWomen empowerment: Laws trending in right direction but need more awareness, says Arundhati Bhattacharya
Women empowerment: Laws trending in right direction but need more awareness, says Arundhati Bhattacharya
Laws are trending towards the right direction, however I think what is really required in our country is far more awareness. This awareness comes out of education, said Arundhati Bhattacharya, former chairman of SBI on the occasion of celebrating International Women's Day.
As the world celebrates International Women's Day, CNBC-TV18’s is in conversation with someone who has managed as a leader, a CEO, a policymaker, a financial expert and has also managed a very large corpus over Rs 30 lakh crore, Arundhati Bhattacharya, former chairman of SBI. She also shared her views on the Yes Bank debacle.
While giving her take on laws in India for women empowerment she said, “There are several people who will consider twice before taking on a women especially if she is already about to have a child, because they know that they will have to give them this advanced paid leave. So this step up from three months to the six months is something that is definitely going to be a challenge but is a step in the right direction. Over a period of time, people will get used to it. So the immediate reaction may not be as good as you would want it to be but down the line as these things gets stabilised things will work out fine.”
She further added, “Laws are trending towards the right direction, however I think what is really required in our country is far more awareness. This awareness comes out of education. Basically, you need to keep on reminding people about the contributions of women, about the strengths of women, about the need for having balance in whatever you do. Awareness is where we need to keep working on.”
Giving her sense on Yes Bank debacle she said, “It is very difficult to talk about these things with partial knowledge, which is what all of us have. Our knowledge is based on what is reported on the television. So, I really do not want to comment with that kind of knowledge.”
She said, “India has always been a country where there have been several crisis and we have overcome all of them. Even this downturn, I have repeatedly said is both structural and cyclical. It is cyclical because if you look at the demography of the country there will come a time when demand will kick back, where confidence will be restored and the economy will start firing again.’
“What we really need to do during this cyclical downturn is to take care of the structural issues. I think this step that has been taken regarding Yes Bank is basically one of those steps so you know there is now at least actions so the market doesn’t have to hold its breath and wait for something to happen,” she specified.
When asked what she expected from the RBI in terms of rates, the former chairman of SBI said, “Rate cuts in India are not as effective as they are in the US, and we all know the reasons for that. The basic reason they are not that effective is because transmission is poor and transmission is poor because market borrowings by banks are low compared to the amount that they have as resources from deposits. I don’t think what applies to the US, applies to India.”
On PSBs she said, “I do believe that if you want the public sector banks to be as efficient as market dominated institutions then you have to give them a level playing field. There is no way of saying that I am going to have a playing field that is different for you and for them and then compare the two. It is like comparing apples and oranges and you will always come up with wrong results."
"I do believe that it is very important today especially in a service organisation where you need to be nimble, you need to be agile, you do need to give that kind of an environment to institutions whether they are in private sector or in the public sector.”
Giving her take on credit offtake she said, “I do think we will trough out this year on credit growth.”
First Published: Mar 6, 2020 12:54 PM IST
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