How unsuitable bad debts in Indian banking sector blew up, Ex-RBI governor Urjit Patel explains in new book

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Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel has explained the unsuitable bad debts in the Indian banking sector and how it blew up in a book titled: ‘Overdraft: Saving the Indian Saver’.

The description mentioned on Amazon reads that “sometime in 2015, news of unsustainable bad debts (non-performing assets or NPAs) in the Indian banking sector started to first trickle out, and then became a flood. In the forefront were some of India's largest government banks, and a series of tycoons who were running their empires on unpaid debts.”

The banks' problems landed on the table of Patel when he became RBI Governor in September 2016, the description read.

“Based on thirty years of macroeconomic experience, he worked out the '9R' strategy which would save our savings, rescue our banks and protect them from unscrupulous racketeers. In this book, he explains the problem and how it blew up; and how he would have resolved it if he had not been prevented,” it reads.

The book, published by HarperCollins India, will be available to buy from July 31 on Amazon. However, it’s pre-order has been started on the online shopping portal.

Meanwhile, Patel - who resigned in December 2018 following major differences with the government - is mending fences with the regime to take up a key position in a government-research body.

Beginning June 22, Patel will for a four-year term take over as the Chairperson of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), a research body under the control of the ministry of finance.

The institute was set up as an autonomous society, a joint initiative of the ministry of finance, Planning Commission, several state governments and distinguished academicians.

NIPFP's governing body includes three representatives of the finance ministry, one each from the Planning Commission and the Reserve Bank of India and three representatives of sponsoring state governments.