INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Shaktikanta Das completed consultations with heads of state-run banks on Wednesday.New RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has completed his
consultations with heads of state-run banks, he said on Wednesday.Das, who had earlier served in the government as Economic Affairs
Secretary, took charge at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week almost immediately after the abrupt resignation of Urjit Patel as the
RBI Governor, a rare phenomenon in the banking world."Meetings with public sector banks completed
charge, Das had said that consultations with stakeholders have become fundamental to the central bank's functioning in view of the
resignation followed the most significant crisis in government-RBI relations provoked by the liquidity crunch in the economy.The
government's "differences" with the RBI centres on four issues - the former wanted liquidity support to head off any credit freeze risk, a
relaxation in capital requirements for lenders, relaxing the prompt corrective action (PCA) rules for banks struggling with accumulated
non-performing assets (NPAs or bad loans) that have reached the staggering level of over Rs 12 lakh crore, and support for MSMEs.Earlier on
Thursday, the government presented in the Lok Sabha the second Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2018-19 for gross additional expenditure
of Rs 85,948.86 crore which includes Rs 41,000 crore for recapitalisation of the PSBs that have been hit hard by NPAs.Currently, 11 banks
with high bad debts are under the PCA framework that prohibits them from further lending
