Bad Money : Inside the NPA Mess and How it Threatens the Indian Banking System by Vivek Kaul

PART I

1

Let’s Say Thank You to
Nirav Modi

In early February 2018, I was at Symbiosis International University, on the
outskirts of Pune, to address a batch of journalism students. The university
is built on a hill and at the top of the hill is the guest house.
It was late in the evening and I was standing outside my room, looking at
the setting sun and clicking pictures. A few peacocks were roaming around,
adding to the beauty of the scenery.
I was at peace with myself, happy at having taken the three-and-a-half-hour
drive from Mumbai, where I live and work amongst a lot of concrete and
people I don’t know.
The peace and quiet lasted for all of ten minutes, and then my mobile phone
rang. The STD code that flashed on my smartphone (as the call was coming
from a landline) told me that someone from Noida was trying to reach me. I
reluctantly picked up the call and found myself talking to someone who
spoke chaste Hindi, a rarity these days.
An editor from a large Hindi daily had called and he wanted to know if I
could write a 600-word piece in simple terms on the fugitive diamantaire
Nirav Modi and the problems of bad loans in PSBs. PSBs are banks largely
owned by the government.
Nirav Modi had scammed the Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs 12,645.97
crore¹ and escaped from the country. His escape had made him the talk of
the town and even a Hindi newspaper, which wouldn’t have bothered about
banking news and analysis on most days, was now interested in a piece on
the fugitive and the bad loans of PSBs.

Bad Money : Inside the NPA Mess and How it Threatens the Indian Banking System by Vivek Kaul