Banks on 2-day nation-wide strike from today: Here's how it will affect you

Employees and officers of various public sector banks across the country are on a two-day strike starting today to protest a nominal 2 per cent wage hike offered by the Indian Banks' Association (IBA).

The strike is expected to hit bank customers hard as it may disrupt month-end salary credit operation. Further, the strike could trigger a country-wide cash crunch as ATMs of most banks would not be replenished in the next two-days. Several ATMs might even remain closed during the strike as security guards employed in these ATMs are also likely to participate in the protest.

Owing to the strike, operations such as clearing of cheques, money transfer, cash remittances, and deposit and withdrawals at branches will not be possible in the next two days.

Time to privatise state-owned banks in taxpayers interest: Nandan Nilekani

Infosys chairman and Unique ID project architect Nandan Nilekani on Tuesday said the "original rationale" for bank nationalisation has ceased to exist and that privatisation is the way forward the public sector lenders citing the taxpayers' interest.

Nilekani, who contested the last Lok Sabha polls on a Congress ticket, said banks were nationalised over five decades ago because they were focusing only on big industries and ignoring smaller ones. The 21 state-run banks had suffered reverses because of lending to large companies.

Introduction of technology-based solutions also makes it possible to cater to the requirements of the smaller borrowers, who were neglected in the pre-nationalisation era, the technocrat said.

"The original rationale has gone away and so let most banks function on market principles owned by the general public," he told reporters, adding privatising them is also in the interest of taxpayers.

Note ban impact: Banking correspondents feel the heat of banks cutting cost

About two years ago, when Amita Ghosh was still in a full-time clerical job with a private sector firm on the outskirts of Kolkata, many of her acquaintances had already seen a brisk rise in income as banking correspondents (BCs) in a short span of time. Their income suddenly rose three-fold, from an average of Rs 5,000 to around Rs 15,000 per month.
In August 2014, when the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was launched, close to 100,000 banking correspondents were roped in, for banks scrambled to meet targets set by the government. Most of them being either higher secondary or secondary school pass-outs, otherwise engaged in low-earning or informal sector jobs. Not only the BCs were entitled to fixed income of Rs 5,000 per month, but also commission payable on transactions, and new account-opening meant a good variable component. Allured by the offer of a better earning, Saha quit her job, which paid her around Rs 4,000 per month, to be a BC. For close to two years Saha’s average monthly income rose to Rs 13,000 per month, peaking around the time of demonetisation, when she earned about Rs 18,000 per month.
Cut to January 2018, Saha’s income has plummeted to Rs 6,000-6,500 per month as BCs bear the brunt of cost-cutting measures of public sector banks. Notably, few months back, when the government proposed the possibility of reduction of perks for regular employees of public sector banks, a strong opposition by bank employees ensured that such a measure was never implemented.
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