Source: Google

By, Charan Singh

Ashok Pradhan, CEO of United Bank of India

When passion marries profession, bliss is the natural corollary. Ashok Kumar Pradhan(Recipe for Cleaning Banking Mess), CEO of United Bank of India (UBI) embodies this pithy saying. Despite being incessantly goaded by his parents to opt for civil services as a career option, Pradhan took the dive into the banking pool.

He joined as a probationary officer with the State Bank of Bikaner in July 1985.

Since then, his career has blossomed, making him one of the most influential people in UBI in the topmost echelons. So much so that not only is he revered among his colleagues but is also lionized by the competition. 

Despite drawing immense gratification from an illustrious career, Mr Pradhan(Recipe for Cleaning Banking Mess) reckons that the banking industry is going through very challenging times.

“Changes are being made, keeping in mind the severity of the problems. However, despite injecting changes, the result is far from being fruitful”, Mr Pradhan feels.

He further believes that the time value of money is suffering a great deal as the reforms are not able to cope up with the challenges. Unless we address this, the growth momentum suffers.

Mr Pradhan(Recipe for Cleaning Banking Mess) rues the fact that the reckless credit culture has breathed down the neck of the banking industry.

As a result of which the NPAs are piling up, making the banks crawl when they need to run as the catalyst of India’s dream to achieve a five trillion dollar economy.

The trickling down effect of this is the inability of the banks to raise enough capital to fuel growth.

In the era of globalisation, there are other factors that are destabilising the Indian economy, be it the international trade war or other socio-cultural and economic disputes.

India has to bear the brunt as India doesn’t operate in isolation. Staring at the colossal economic crisis in the pandemonium of Corona pandemic, Mr Pradhan(Recipe for Cleaning Banking Mess) enunciates a few steps

A.  People defrauding banks must be taken to the task although it’s a cultural issue some times. 

B. Addressing the NPAs issues as a time-bound process.

C. The board of directors should be independent without the intervention of various authorities.

D. Governance reforms must be expedited.

E.  To deal with cultural issues, police reforms must be executed.