This refers to ‘Rishi Sunak becomes UK’s Prime Minister’ ( October 25). Rishi Sunak, one of the richest men in British Parliament, has become the UK’s third prime minister in two months, and is tasked with tackling a mounting economic crisis, a warring Conservative party and a deeply divided country.
Sunak will soon have to find ways to cut spending to plug an estimated £40-billion ($45 billion) hole in the public finances due to an economic slowdown, higher borrowing costs and a six-month programme of support for people's energy bills.
However, with a recession looming and the next general election in two years, it may be a Herculean task for him to justify his elevation as the UK's Prime Minister.
SK Gupta
New Delhi
Rishi Sunak’s election as the leader of the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister of the UK, after the tumultuous yet short tenure of his predecessor Liz Truss, is along expected lines. However, he has to hit the ground running given the morass in the UK economy.
As a shrewd and pragmatic politician, Sunak has created a huge expectation that he can steer the UK economy from its crippling crisis besides anchoring much needed political stability. If he delivers on his mandate, he could very well lead the Conservative Party and challenge the resurgent Labour Party in the next general election.
M Jeyaram
Sholavandan (TN)
Bank boost
This is with reference to ‘Bank profits rise on growth in net interest income, lower provisions’ (October 24 ). In the first half of FY23,both public and private bank have performed well except for a couple of banks, which have necessitated RBI’s intervention. The “decreased amounts of provision in balance sheets” and “increase in net interest income” are the two most encouraging factors which is a reflection of banks’ strict monitoring of loan accounts.
However, banks must not become complacent as monitoring loan accounts is a continuous process.
Katuru Durga Prasad Rao
Hyderabad
Making banking easy
Apropos the Editorial ‘Banking on digital’ (October 24), the concept of Digital Banking Units (DBU) is a new horizon in the banking arena. With the advent of ATMs, cash withdrawal became easier and later improvised to enable cash withdrawal from any bank’s ATM. Cash Deposit Machines, Pass Book Printing Kiosks further helped customers. With introduction of Internet banking, Mobile Banking applications, transacting route banking transactions became easier. Yet, there is no reduction in the footfall as expected. People still have to visit the branches either for opening accounts or for applying for loans. The DBU which is in phygital format is a combination of machines with a limited skilled manpower and is operable with self service zone and digital assistance zone.
To make this model a success, banks must ensure availability of tech-savvy staff at the DBU branch. As RBI’s directives on opening of a brick and mortar branch would not apply to DBU service outlets, banks must take advantage of this provision to make banking easy.
RV Baskaran
Chennai
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