‘Bankers responsible for financial crisis’-Swraj Paul

NEW DELHI: Terming the current global economic crisis as a creation of investment bankers, NRI business tycoon Lord Swraj Paul on Monday said the magnitude of the problem could be far bigger than what meets the eye.
“It is a man-made crisis and the investment bankers are responsible for it,” he said at an interactive session organised by the FICCI Ladies Organisation here.
Major banks across the world have written off over $120 billion in bad debts since last year, connected to the sub-prime crisis in the U.S. Banking sector analysts have predicted close to another $200 billion write-downs.
Lord Paul said bankers have gone overboard by giving loans to people, which were more than their repaying capacity and have resulted in the current crisis. He cautioned that India was not shielded from the global downturn and the country’s soaring inflation should be a matter of concern.
“Some people got into the exuberance of growth that India witnessed but they failed to understand the problem of tackling inflation,” he said, adding that countries such as Britain were more focussed on controlling inflation than achieving growth. He said although India had managed to ‘shine’ far better than it was 50 years ago, it had left a lot to be desired. “...80-85 per cent of the people are being neglected, no country can be proud of such a figure,” he said. Lord Paul said it was a shame that over 300 million people live on an earning of $1 a day and nearly 600 million on $2 a day.
Asking women of India to take up leadership role, he said: “A corporate leader does not have to be a visionary, yet he needs to have a vision. The vision may not always remain the same; it can change or evolve, but he must know where he wants to go at any time and keep going towards it.” — PTI