Some interesting stories on this Monday of Dec 2019,which I would like to share with you all.
1 Cricket- I fail to understand why selection committee is experimenting with the cricketing 11. In yesterday’s ODI match with West Indies at Chennai, the Indian cricket team could not defend a total of 287/8, WI team easily crossed this total with 13 balls and 8 wickets to spare. Our bowling attack could not restrict West Indian batsmen specially Hope and Hetmeyer and both of them scored century, and smashed all the Indian bowlers with Shivam Dube conceding 68 runs in 7.5 overs. It has been proven time and again , during India batting if top 3 batsmen fail then rest of the Indian batsmen do not have capability of amassing big score. Yesterday openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul played uncharacteristic innings as per their standards. Rahul scored 6 runs in 15 balls and Rohit scored 36 runs in 56 balls, and when Virat Kohli also get out at 4. The pressure came on No. 4, 5 & 6 batsmen. Although Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Kedar Jadhav did played well and scored 70,71 and 40 respectively, collectively they took 197 balls to score 181 runs, which was around 92% as strike rate. But on batting friendly pitch, the need of the hour was to score at least 335 to 340 runs. So in the end Indian were short by almost 50 runs, knowing that their bowling attack is limited with only 2 strike bowlers. The combination of Shivam Dube & Kedar Jadhav (supposedly all rounders) conceded 79 runs in 8.5 overs.
In the recent T20 and ODI matches we have seen that if Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, both fail in the same match then the rest of the batting is not capable enough to score huge total for India. With bowlers being vulnerable some times, it is only the batting which can give the team edge in the match. Although we are supposed to have best pace bowling attack in the world, but are pacers are injury prone, and most of the times out of 5 world class pacers only 2 or 3 are fit enough to play. It only means that our bowlers are playing more than required and their body do not get enough rest, and hence they are susceptible to injuries. The BCCI is trying to make more money out of these players, by asking them to pay more matches.
2 Yesterday more that 50 account holders of Punjab & Maharashtra Co Op (PMC) Bank were detained after they protested outside the residence of Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackrey.
More than 500 account holder of PMC Bank, initially had gathered outside RBI office in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and then later headed towards Matoshree, the present residence of CM in Bandra. You all know that PMC bank has been troubled because of the fraud committed by some top officials of the bank in giving loans to construction group HDIL. The fraud is off almost Rs 6500 Cr and RBI put sanction on depositors of PMC Bank, that they can not withdraw more than Rs 50,000 in 6 months. This has put more than million depositors in 137 branches of the bank across 5 states in India, in great financial trouble. There are about 100 branches of the bank in Maharashtra only.
It is almost 3 months since the fraud came out in the open and sanction placed, but nothing has come out from either Govt or RBI (under whose jurisdiction all Co Op banks come) what is the course of action. Depositors who have invested their hard earned money in the PMC Bank are facing great hardship, even for running their day to day expenses and worried about the fate of their Fixed Deposits (FDs) lying with the Bank. As per last count 18 depositors have died due to shock/cardiac arrest/heart attack etc, as some of them were having Rs in Lakhs and even Crores in FDs with the PMC Bank.
Every day conflicting stories came in media regarding next course of action, few days back there was news that PMC Bank will be merged with Maharashtra State Co Op Bank (MSC Bank)- this bank was also hit by scam few years back when it was found that MSC bank has given huge loans to Sugar Co Ops managed by politicians of Congress/NCP. The merger news immediately denied by MSC Bank. Then came the news that Enforcement Directorate (ED) will sell the assets of HDIL promoters and give the money back to bank. As per ED the value of seized assets is much more than the fraud amount. But till date no concrete news has come out that so much value asset has been sold and so much amount has been recovered.
Now if the ED/RBI knows that the recovery amount will be more than the due amount from HDIL, then why the Central Govt can not temporarily finance the PMC Bank till the full amount is recovered, so that the innocent depositors can have access to their funds lying with PMC Bank. Let the law take its due course for the cases filed against promoters of HDIC and arrested PMC Bank official.
The present incidence only prove that either Auditors of RBI were inefficient in auditing the Bank accounts or they were in league with corrupt officials of the PMC & promoters of HDIL, as per information this fraud was going on since 2007. If that is not the case then how come RBI gave the rating of A+ to the PMC Bank till 2019. The point to ponder is why there is no strong legal action against the officials of RBI?
What you say my friends on these above matters.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
16th Dec 2019.