This is clearly a crunch week for many sectors. And bailouts of one kind or the other are the flavour of the season.
This is clearly a crunch week for many sectors. And bailouts of one kind or the other are the flavour of the season. The biggest recipient of goodies is likely to be our very own Maharaja.
Expecting a hefty loan and an infusion of new capital, the corporate headquarters at Nariman Point is looking wistfully towards Delhi. From thence, help must come.
And soon.
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Sky sighs: The clouds in the Mumbai sky may not portend monsoons yet, but they hope that it will soon shower salaries, feels the writeru00a0File pic |
Meanwhile, the airline staff are holding their breath. The clouds in the Mumbai sky may not portend monsoons yet, but they hope that it will soon shower salaries. The staff hasn't quite recovered from the bland
announcement of a salary delay. But then, the ever efficient Praful Patel has promised that all will be well. And he certainly won't let a newly energised top management to wither away so soon. Before any alarm bells go off in the National carriers' cockpit, expect to see the goody bags arrive.
But money, money, money is the plea everywhere. Tata Motors and Kingfisher Airlines also have one thing in common: both relied on cash from the State Bank of India to prop up their ailing coffers. SBI provided the master guarantee as Tata raised Rs 4,200 crore barely in time to pay off some of the Rs 14,313 crore debt it had acquired when it bought Jaguar and Land Rover.
Meanwhile Mallya, whose airline is desperately seeking the elusive 'good times', used SBI and a clutch of other public sector banks to raise the much-needed Rs 2,000 crore to keep it in the air.
But the RBI is clearly not amused. Although it has allowed the Tata deal to go through, it has expressed its disapproval in a circular issued to the banks.
Apparently, banks cannot take direct exposure to companies that offer bonds, which is clearly what SBI has done in the case of Tata Motors. In which case, the Tata loan may well be the last such outing for a public sector bank. Thankfully, say Air India's supporters, all they need is a nod from the Cabinet, rather than any okay from any Central Bank.
