Chennai: Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel will be releasing a book later this month, in which he has apparently made some shocking claims.
Titled ‘Overdraft: Saving the Indian Saver’, the book focuses on the non-performing assets (NPAs) issue that has afflicted Indian banking in recent years, its causes and Patel’s efforts as the RBI Governor in dealing with it.
It may be recalled that Patel’s stint as the head of the central bank was one of the most tumultuous in recent times that ended with the rare event of an RBI Governor resigning.
Publisher HarperCollins India tweeted: “Urjit Patel invests his thirty years of macroeconomic experience in building strategies to protect our banks from unscrupulous racketeers, ultimately aimed at saving our savings…”
According to the description of the book, sovereigns do not need to earn or save before spending money. They can either print or borrow.
“In our country, where they own banks, they can use our deposits to lend and splurge for goals that may not always be economic in nature. Many rulers have succumbed to the temptation, with dire results – inflation, debased currency, payments crises, bankrupt banks, economic stagnation, loss of public confidence. After centuries of ruinous experiences, some governments learnt, others haven’t, to control themselves, create self-governing Central banks and let them manage money and regulate banks,” it says.
The book says the issue of unsustainable bad debts started as a trickle in 2015 and then became a flood. “In the forefront were some of India’s largest government banks, and a series of tycoons who were running their empires on unpaid debts,” it adds.
It said Patel worked with a ‘9R’ strategy which would protect depositors’ savings, rescue the banks and protect them from unscrupulous racketeers.