Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee Favours Cutting Government Equity In Public Sector Banks To Below 51 Per Cent

Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee on Tuesday (22 October) suggested reducing government equity in public sector banks to below 51 per cent in order to end the fear psychosis of bankers.

Addressing a press conference here, the US-based economist said that fear of investigation by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in default cases had paralysed the banking system and bankers do not want to lend. "Reducing government equity in public sector banks to under 51 per cent will take them out of the CVC purview," he said.

Refusing to take any questions on the economy or contentious issues, Banerjee said that in his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the morning, the latter had joked that the media was trying to trap him and get anti-Modi comments out of him.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)