Our Bureau

Chennai , Aug. 10

The former Chairman of the State Bank group, Mr P.G. Kakodkar, said on Thursday that his autobiography, My 40 years with SBI, would be released on Friday (August 11, 2006) in Chennai.

Speaking to the media here, Mr Kakodkar said, "It's my story intertwined with that of SBI's. I had a ringside view of some momentous events such as nationalisation and the expansion of branch network, the Harshad Mehta scam, computerisation programme and economic liberalisation."

Asked if there was any political interference during his tenure, Mr Kakodkar gave a clean chit to the then Finance Ministers, Dr Manmohan Singh, and Mr P. Chidambaram. He said, "They adopted a hands-off policy. Not once did I get a call from the Finance Minister or his secretary."

Asked to comment on the recent directive from the Finance Ministry to banks to have their rate hikes reviewed by the board, Mr Kakodkar said, "You have seen that some banks do take an independent view based on market realities. They have to quote rates that the market can bear. If the Finance Ministry dictates rates, the banks will be finished. They have seen the price of political interference — about Rs 20,000 crore was spent on recapitalisation of banks."

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu Business Line