Delhi triggers a Mumbai chalo

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's announcement that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may issue fresh licences to private sector players and convert finance companies to banks has set off a veritable rush by non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and business houses to stake their claims. Corporate biggies including Bajaj Auto, A V Birla, and Shriram Capital are already aboard, the 'bank licence' bandwagon and many more are now lining up.u00a0

u00a0However, seeing the onrush, RBI may have to tighten licensing norms. Most expect RBI chief Subbarao to increase the minimum net worth requirement of Rs 300 crore to at least Rs 500 crore. There may be some other tweaks in the policy as well, including deciding such weighty issues as ownership. But the floodgates have been opened and it is likely that the current hopefuls will get their licences, if they meet RBI's criterion and look for spaces to house their ops once they do.

Under the gun
Time was when only industrialists in Mumbai lived in fear of a call from "bhai". The extortion calling card even wormed its way into Bollywood mythology and some of its protagonists. Now, it seems that this trend is spreading to other cities.u00a0

Industrialists and developers in Surat and Chennai received threatening calls from an Indian terror group obviously attempting to raise funds. Industrialists in Kolkata have become also the latest target of bhai-type extortionists.

Four 'victims' of such calls were identified to be two shoe barons, a hotelier and another industrialist from Howrah, with the calls allegedly originating from Dubai, Karachi and Nepal. So far, the authorities claim to have matters in control, but it is hardly comforting to know that the threat of the underworld is spreading rapidly.