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| The Hindu Newspaper Editorial Vocabulary : 06 November 2018 -For Various Competitive Exams: Quantamity |
Wilful on defaulters? : on RBI
The RBI should share the details sought by the Central Information Commission
The Reserve Bank of India finds itself in the midst of another tangle. The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed RBI Governor Urjit Patel to show cause
“why maximum penalty should not be imposed on him for” the central
bank’s ostensible “defiance” of Supreme Court orders on disclosing the
names of wilful defaulters on bank loans worth hundreds of crores of
rupees. In his order dated November 2, Information Commissioner M.
Sridhar Acharyulu has come down heavily on the RBI and its chief for
failing to uphold the interest of the public at large and not fulfilling
its statutory duty to the depositors, the economy and the banking
sector, by privileging individual banks’ interests over its obligation
to ensure transparency. At the heart of the matter is the issue of
burgeoning bad loans at the country’s commercial banks, which by the
RBI’s own admission had, at the gross level, surged to 11.6% of all
advances as on March 31, 2018, from September 2017’s 10.2% level. While
the central bank has repeatedly acknowledged the gravity of the problem
it faces, including in ensuring more accountability from the more
numerous public sector banks over which it wants greater control, it has
consistently invoked both the risk to the country’s “economic interest”
and its “fiduciary” relationship with lenders to avoid sharing
information on the largest defaulters with RTI applicants.
Citing
the apex court’s 2015 order, where the judges had directed the central
bank to comply with the provisions of the RTI Act after observing that
the “RBI has no legal duty to maximise the benefit of any public sector
or private sector bank, and thus there is no relationship of ‘trust’
between them”, Mr. Acharyulu rhetorically asked how the rule of law
could be secured if a regulator like the RBI would not “honour” a
constitutional institution’s directions. The CIC order is also unsparing
of the government for not being more forthcoming. Mr. Acharyulu has
justifiably asked the Finance Ministry why it should not explain to the
people the action taken, or contemplated, to recover dues from wilful
defaulters, who owe banks more than ₹50 crore, and, where warranted, the
criminal proceedings initiated. While it is no one’s argument that all
large unpaid loans are
by-products of mala fide borrowing, the onus is on the RBI and the
government to make as clean a breast of it as is legally possible, in
order to retain public trust. Given that the RBI has initiated steps to
set up a digital Public Credit Registry that would include details of
all borrowers including wilful defaulters, it would behove the banking
regulator to meet the CIC’s November 16 deadline for furnishing the
information sought about those owing ₹1,000 crore or more, to start
with.
01. Wilful
(adjective) – deliberate, intentional, purposeful.
02. Defaulter
(noun) – a person who is (purposefully) not repaying banks/lenders’ debt on
time for various reasons.
03. In the midst of
(phrase) – in the middle of sth.
04. Tangle
(noun) – raveled, entangled, snarled, snarled up,
entwined, intertwisted, enmeshed, muddle, mix-up, confusion.
05. Ostensible
(adjective) – superficialavowed, presumed,feigned,
specious, apparent,
seeming, alleged/purported.
06. Defiance
(noun) – non-compliance, disobedience, insubordination, dissent,
recalcitrance, audacity, bravado, aggressioninsolence, truculence, contumacy
resistance, disregard.
07. Come down on
(phrasal verb) – criticize, reprimand, rebuke.
08. Uphold
(verb) – confirm, endorse, validate/justify.
09. At large
(phrase) – as a whole, generally, in general.
10. Statutory
(adjective) – legitimate, permissible, admissible.
11. Privileging
(verb) – immune, protect, exempt (from obligation).
12. Burgeoning
(adjective) – growing, increasing rapidly, shoot up, proliferate, escalate,run
riot, put on a spurt.
13. Gravity
(noun) – seriousness, importance, significance.
14. Invoked
(verb) – cause, give rise to, bring out/evoke.
15. Fiduciary
(adjective) – trustful, trustworthy.
16. Comply with
(verb) – abide by, adhere to, conform to.
17. Rhetorically (adverb)
– bombastically, oratorical, extravagantly.
18. Unsparing (adjective)
– strict/stringent, demanding/rigorous.
19. Forthcoming
(adjective) – communicative, informative, expressive.
20. Contemplated
(verb) – think, ponder, consider.
21. Warranted
(verb) – justify, vindicate, call for.
22. By-products
(noun) – side effect, consequence, ramification/aftermath.
23. Mala fide
(adjective) – Latin phrase meaning “with or in bad faith”; dishonest, illegal.
24. Onus
(noun) – responsibility, duty, burden.
25. Make as clean
breast of it (phrase) – tell the truth, be completely
honest, tell all.
26. Behove
(verb) – be obligatory for, be suitable for, be appropriate for.
27. To start with
(phrase) – at first, at the outset, in the beginning.
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