Evolving Economy

Evolving Economy

 Multiple Opportunities for Banks to Grow Despite the backdrop of articulation of a clear vision to
increase the size of the economy to US $ 3 trillion by 2020, US $ 5 trillion by 2025 on its way to reach US $ 10 trillion by 2030 as envisaged in the interim budget, union budget and followed by reinforcing policies, there is a marked slowdown of GDP to 5 percent in Q1 of the current fiscal obfuscating such aspirations. Notwithstanding such near term disruptions, the potential spurt in the size of the economy would open up multiple opportunities to different sectors, more importantly, to banks that are meant to undertake speedy and efficient financial intermediation. Banks can take a cue from the most important intentions, and aspirations were set out beginning with the economic survey, union budget, series of stimulus packages and more significant is the proposed mergers among the Public Sector Banking space. These could pose both challenges and opportunities to the banks to move to a higher growth trajectory. But the realisation of growth objectives will be contingent upon coordinating synergy of a large number of players that have an umbilical connect with banks such as nonbanks,fintech companies and peer-to-peer lenders and so on. Going by the same logic, deposits of the banking system now at INR 127 trillion and bank credit at INR 97 trillion (September 13, 2019) should be close to double its size by 2025. The stronger and fewer Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in new dispensation can look forward to handling business size far higher than they handle today. The capacity needs to be increased with improved human resource productivity and synergy of technology. With consolidation and big banks in the fray, better economies of scale can be attained. The 27 PSBs at one point of time now turning into 12 should be able to make them more capable of handling a larger chunk of business. But to tap such newer opportunities, organisational preparedness requires a granular analysis of impending scope to work out growth strategies for different lines of business. 1. Opportunities for banks To start the journey of the uphill trek to reach the GDP target of US $ 5 trillion, the road map and resource algorithm in union budget and stimulus packages (UB&Sps) are well-calibrated with continued thrust on fiscal prudence with an avowed objective to peg fiscal deficit at 3.3 percent of the GDP. It is the right opportunity for banks, more importantly, the stronger and bigger PSBs whose market share has been declining after the asset quality review (AQR) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and its aftermath. PSBs need to reinstate their strategic role in supporting the economic growth and help attain the sustainable development goals set out by Niti Ayog. Overcoming the near term disruptions, achieving a sustained real GDP growth of 8 percent per annum will be necessary to inch up close to the long term growth objectives. It may look to be a tough challenge to realise the broad vision of growth, but banks can sense huge opportunities in the new measures of relief. In a bank-led economy, the efficiency of the financial sector will be critical for ensuring seamless monetary transmission and flow of credit. Many thoughtful measures built in the set of UB&Sps for strengthening the banking sector and rescuing Non-Bank Finance Companies (NBFCs) can lead to the development of a robust financial sector ecosystem. The upfront infusion of INR 70000 crores of capital into selected PSBs can shore up capital adequacy and create more lending space. The impact of these relief measures on how the financial sector groaning under the weight of ailing NBFCs and continued asset quality woes will be able to work will depend on the strategies designed andimplemented with full vigour. To unleash such opportunities, banks will have to work out strategies to overcome the series of shocks and collateral damage caused to the financial sector. It began with Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) fiasco in September 2018 with its ramifications on Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) and other interconnected NBFCs. It exacerbated with the fallout of fraud in Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMCB) perpetrated in connivance with Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL). These adverse developments weakened the sentiments in financial intermediation impeding the growth. 2. Consolidation of PSBs When 18 PSBs eventually converge into 12 large and more capable PSBs, they can compete with large private peers and pose a challenge to other financial intermediaries. In the process, the customers can look forward to improved quality of customer service with fine-tuned risk-based pricing policies. Realising the need for a strong capital base to comply with Basel – III standards by March 2020, the government has infused capital in many targeted PSBs assessing the needs. It is in addition to INR 2.5 trillion already provided to PSBs in the last five years. The enhanced capital allocation can restore lending appetite.

The slowdown in credit growth in the last three years due to large-scale bad loans is also being tackled by amending several clauses of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code -2016 (IBC) to make it strong and pragmatic. Near term disruption in the working of 10 PSBs to be formed into four large banks cannot be ruled out, but it needs to be minimised with a suitable plan of action. But more important is to derive the synergy of amalgamation in the long term. With boards of PNB, Union Bank, Canara Bank and Indian bank approving the amalgamation plan, the process has moved to the next stage to obtain formal approval of the government. Out of the newly carved outset of PSBs, six of them will be bigger in size and reach, and their role will be significant to decide the future course of financial intermediation. The 10 PSBs under merger plans have a total business share of INR 55.56 trillion with a branch network of 37663. They together wield significant clout on the banking system. It will be challenging for them to minimise the disruption in the working. The process of amalgamation should not be allowed to mar the prospects of their growth in the intervening period. Formation of separate teams for rolling out amalgamation plans and hiving off lines of responsibilities will be essential. Cordoning the disruption from stretching to operations need to be pursued by enhancing the levels of follow up and monitoring of regular performance. 3. Policy impact on banks Policies are getting aligned to work out the methods to prevent other people (other than account holder) from depositing money into a bank account. This has become necessary after the large-scale deposit of funds by the third party into the account belonging to someone else during demonetisation that impacted the efficacy of the process. It will help banks check the menace of money laundering. It will further scale down cash transactions. As part of the ease of living for customers, PSBs are expected to harness technology and increase the offer of personal loans online and can roll out doorstep banking. Senior citizens and people needing special assistance and differently-abled would get preferred attention of banks as a part of the transformation. Liquidity relief is provided to the NBFCs that have caused huge collateral damage to the financial system after IL&FS collapse and its aftermath. The lingering liquidity shortfall continues causing successive default in honouring their financial commitments. Under the new arrangement, the government will now encourage PSBs to buy highrated pooled assets of the sound NBFCs up to INR 1 trillion for which the government will provide a one-time six-month partial credit guarantee for the first loss of up to 10 percent. Banks are also incentivised to support the NBFCs by using one percent of their Net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) to be treated as high-quality liquid assets for computing their liquidity coverage ratio (LCR). This extra liquidity can be used to extend fresh funding to NBFCs and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) effective July 5, 2019. NBFCs will also be treated at par with banks in respect of tax breaks on interest received. They will now be able to handle taxes on losses arising out of Non- Performing Assets (NPAs). Government has proposed an amendment to Section 45-IA of the RBI Act 1934 to empower the central bank to supersede the board of NBFCs and enable resolution of financially troubled NBFCs through merger, restructuring or splitting them into viable and non-viable units known as bridge institutions. RBI can now remove auditors, call for audit of any group company of an NBFC and can even decide upon the compensation of senior management. Such comprehensive empowerment can improve public confidence in the NBFC sector. RBI will now regulate HFCs, a power so far vested with National Housing Bank (NHB). Out of the 82 HFCs, top five HFCs have a marketshare of over 90 percent that is more important to be brought under robust regulations. 4. Scope for increased flow of credit Despite hefty repo rate cuts by the RBI in the current rate cycle beginning February 2019, the role of banks in transmitting policy rates has remained subdued. The weighted average lending rates (WALR) on fresh rupee loans hardly decreased by 29 basis points (bps) and the WALR on outstanding loans increased by seven bps.
Further drilling down the WALR trends will indicate that foreign banks, private banks and PSBs have brought them down by 66, 48 and 25 bps respectively. Similarly, the market share of fresh rupee loans of private banks has gone up to 49.3 percent as against 39.8 percent of PSBs during the fiscal up to August 2019. Such trend reflects a more aggressive role of private banks compared to PSBs that are struggling with the high volume of toxic assets. The rest of the market share of 10.9 percent of fresh rupee loans goes to other sectors of banks. Since the bulk of the beneficiaries at the bottom of the pyramid are with PSBs, the flow of credit may not have reached the wider section of the society limiting the revival process. However, with an increasing market share of private banks and enhanced lending activism, the benefit is beginning to impact the larger segment of borrowers even at the lower rung of the society. Even an overall trend of credit growth of banks does not augur well to push growth prospects. The year-on-year (y-o-y) bank credit growth has been tepid at 10.3 percent as on September 13, 2019 as against 13.5 percent recorded during the corresponding period of the previous year that reflects marked slowdown in credit off-take during current fiscal 2020. Banks can work on new opportunities to increase credit flow based on the recent additional tax concessions extended up to INR 1,50,000 on interest on affordable housing loans. The increased allocation under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) will open up more scope for the retail lending sector. Similarly, the tax concession on home loans now at INR 2 lacs will go up to INR 3.5 lacs. The added tax concession will be available only to fresh loans to be granted during the financial year 2020. It will increase the sudden demand for home loans. With the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) institutionalised in many states, the construction / housing sector will be better regulated, protecting the rights of buyers. With a target of 1.95 crore housing units to be constructed in a record time of next two-three years to move towards the objective to provide housing for all by 2022, the sector will get a boost, and banks can tap this source which has a high cross-selling opportunity. Similarly, the income tax concession on interest on loans taken to buy electric vehicles can create additional demand for car loans. Eventually, even the auto industry may gradually shift towards manufacturing electric vehicles to fall in-line with green initiatives. With hardly one percent of the people opting for electric vehicles as of now, there will be a spurt in buyers in higher tax bracket who can save more. Increase in retail loan portfolio could be possible with the new dispensation. The infrastructure sector will be under focus with an expenditure outlay of INR 1 trillion to be spent in the next five years. Allocation of INR 80250 crores for phase-III of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) for the upgradationof 1.25 lac kilometres of road in the hinterland will activate many interdependent businesses to boost rural infrastructure. Similarly, under ‘National Rural Drinking Water Mission’, all rural households are to be provided piped water supply by 2024. Presently, 18 – 20 percent of the households have such facility. This will also bring up many rural activities right from laying pipelines, construction of overhead tanks, civil works, job works, and sale of hardware accessories along with the job creation. Every such activity brings increased bank collaboration. Proposals to increasingly use the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model by railways and privatisation of some of its activities when seen together with increased capital expenditure (capex) spent by the government will benefit many sectors. The proposal to raise foreign currency resources from overseas will open up new opportunities for many sectors of the economy. 5. Increased thrust on MSME Since MSME and ‘Startups’ are known to be critical employment-intensive sectors, measures are proposed to increase the flow of credit to unleash its potentiality. The angel tax has been addressed, and a two percent interest subvention is allowed on fresh loans to be granted to Goods, and Service Tax (GST) registered MSMEs for which an allocation of INR 350 crores is made in Union Budget 2019-20. Rationalisation of labour laws can help them accelerate the formalisation of the economy. The corporate tax rate is brought down to 25 percent for the firms having a turnover of up to INR 400 crores, raised from INR 250 crores which will provide relief to 99.3 percent of the 1.5 lac companies incorporated so far according to the data of Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).
To reinforce ‘Make in India’ campaign to pump prime manufacturing activity, the import tariffs are calibrated to boost local manufacturing. Increase in customs duty of certain automobile components and electronic devices will increase local manufacturing activities and more so when loans are made
available with interest subvention. MSME units will be encouraged to increase production by taking benefit of concessions using digital mode. When these budgetary sops are seen together with the key recommendations of the recent report of the ‘Expert Committee on MSME (Chairman: U K Sinha)’, it will provide further insight on the emerging potentiality of the sector. Among many far reaching recommendations, the game changing proposals relate to (I) formation of Stressed Asset Fund of INR 5000 crores for the units impacted by change in external environment beyond the control of the entrepreneur; (ii) setting up an apex National / State level council for MSMEs; (iii)doubling of limits of collateral free loans under Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana and Startup India to increase flow of funds; (iv)expansion of scope of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to be the fulcrum to steer the sector to the next level of growth; (v) creation of incentives and disincentives to the lenders by introducing Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) scheme requiring the banks to deposit shortfall in achieving MSME targets; (vi)making it mandatory to source 25 percent of Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) needs from MSME units through Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal; (vii) expansion of number of MSE Facilitation Council (MSEFC) to help address the delayed payment conundrum of the sector along with strengthening Trade Receivables electronic Discount System (TreDS) platform. At the same time, the government has also directed PSBs to assign credit availability aspects of MSME sector to GM level executive for accelerating the flow of credit. It also suggested a well-calibrated monitoring mechanism to institutionalise weekly feedback in a bid to improve accountability for performance. Despite several expert committees providing guidance and policy interventions from time to time, the plight of MSME continues to be weak. To energise the sector, the government had earlier rolled out 12-point MSME outreach initiatives in November 2018. One of the most important initiatives was the introduction of ‘in-principle’ sanction of loans to MSME units up to INR 1 crore in just 59 minutes. The intending borrower should log into a dedicated website – ‘psbloansin59minutes’ which will collect borrower’s details online from various digitally connected sources such as income tax department, GST and other sources to provide an in-principle sanction with which the potential borrower can approach any PSB to get the loan. These are some early efforts to speed up credit delivery, if implemented well may facilitate the borrowers. The demand for external credit of MSME sector is estimated to be in the range of INR 37 trillion in 2018 as against formal credit flow of INR 14.5 trillion that hardly meets half its needs. Bank credit to MSME sector was INR 11.7 trillion in March 2015 that could reach INR 15.77 trillion by March 2019 working out an annualised growth of 6.9 percent far below the banking industry credit growth. Because of these developments, banks can work towards increasing exposure to the MSME sector in a big way and pursue inclusive development.

Why Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) failing often?

Why Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) failing often?

Introduction: The UCBs are playing an important role in providing basic banking services to the general public across the country. There are around 1550 UCBs operating in India with a deposit base of `4.60 lakh crore and credit portfolio of `2.80 lakh crore. Majority of the depositors of these banks are middle class people and senior citizens who are attracted by the higher interest rate compared to Public Sector Banks. Present Reference: The Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank Ltd (PMC), a multi-state cooperative bank with a network of 137 branches spread in six states with total business of `20000 crore (Dep `12000 crore & Adv `8000 crore) failed to meet the commitments to the customers in September 2019. Another Bangalore based bank, Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank joined in the fray in January 2020 and RBI imposed restrictions on the Bank. The major reasons for fallout of UCBs are: Small Capital Base - The capital required for opening of a UCB is `25 lakhs compared to `100 crore for small finance banks. These guidelines enabled many unscrupulous elements to enter in to this sector easily. Vested Interests – UCBs are susceptible for external influences and sanction huge amounts without valid purpose. Majority of these loans are not backed by collateral securities. The promoters are misusing their official position and siphoning funds. Undue exposure to Real Estate Companies is also one of the reasons for failure of UCBs. Lack of Supervision – UCBs are operating under dual control viz., RBI and Registrar of co-operatives. RBI’s supervision is not as stringent as that of commercial banks and the regular audit by the respective state governments is not effective. Recent Developments: In order to protect the interests of the small depositors of Urban Co-operative Banks, RBI initiated the following measures: The exposure limits are revised - Single borrower from 15% to 10% and a Group of connected borrowers from 40% to 25% of Tier-1 capital. The priority sector targets increased from 40% to 75% of ANBC by 31st March 2023 with a stipulation that minimum 50% of credit should comprise with `25 lakh and below credit limits. The said measures are expected to reduce the credit concentration risk of the UCBs. The CRILC guidelines are now applicable to all UCBs and they need to share information of borrowers having aggregate exposure (fund ad nonfund) of `5 crore and above to CRILC. RBI advised all UCBs with deposits of over `100 crore to constitute a Board of Management (BoM) comprising experts to oversee their functioning with an objective to improve the corporate governance in UCBs.

BANKING BUSINESS STRATEGY

BANKING BUSINESS STRATEGY

BRANCH LEVEL BUSINESS STRATEGY CASA STRATEGY _ To undertake massive CASA Campaign across the country to mobilize new accounts _ Focus on relationship building and posting of relationship officer/manager at least at district level & relationship manager of Scale IV/V at state level to have good liaison with government departments/corporate. _ To have School/College teachers account to boost our retail liability/retail asset products portfolio. _ Allocation of Publicity budget to identified block level branches for increasing visibility. Conduct of Regular CASA Campaigns during each quarter with specific emphasis on CASA Accounts mobilization from HNI / Payroll accounts, Government Departments ( Panchayat, Block level, District level and state level accounts, RUSA,Govt. school & Colleges, MP/MLA accounts/ TASC account _ Revival of Inoperative / Dormant accounts _ Focus on New Branches for exponential growth in CASA of new branches _ Organizing HNI / NRI Meets at frequent intervals at all major centers. _ Transformation of additional Shikhar branches with a view to enhance customer service resulting in higher CASA growth. ( we have seen 20% CASA growth in these branches) COMPETITION WITH PAYMENT BANK _ New banks will offer interest higher than PSBs hence retail depositors will move to payment bank, have impact on CASA of banks, tighten NIM of banks, _ Customer will open account with payment banks for small ticket payments _ Customer will get newest / easy technology for their payments _ If will have less impact if they offer easy payment options for their small tickets payment by offering new tech based App _ Step to minimize impact on PSBs: _ New technology for payments need of customers, provide better platform for mobile payments, _ improve customer service, Banks need to understand their customers, in order to understand the current market trends and predict the future trends, segmentation of customers and specific / appealing products for a particular segment, rewards/points for making payments, privacy and security _ collaborate with them to create a partnership model CUSTOMER SERVICE _ In order to achieve the set goals, Customer Service needs to be given adequate attention. Following customer centric initiatives undertaken to reduce customer complaints and enhance business:- _ Counter service to be improved. _ Rude behavior of staff to be eliminated and Zero tolerance level for rude behavior. During FY15-16, 131 cases of rude behavior were reported. _ Timely and Speedy redressal of customer complaints. _ Providing priority services to the Senior Citizens and Pensioners. _ Motivating customers as well as staff for usage of Tech products. _ Popularizing Missed Call Facility, Internet and Mobile Banking, Canara e-info book, Canara Easy Cash etc. _ Sensitization of staff to improve our position in BCSBI rating amongst all Banks. _ Steps initiated towards Information dissemination, Transparency, Customer Centricity, Grievance Redressal, Customer feedback etc. LOSS MAKING TURNAROUND _ Stress on improving net interest income _ Increasing the CD ratio _ Reduction in cost of deposits by increasing CASA ratio and reducing Bulk deposit _ Reducing / eliminating NPA _ Containing the operating expenses

RETAIL LENDING _ Retail Lending by every branch and aim to achieve NIL lending branches. _ Task force to be made in each Circle for branches having CD Ratio less than 50% in order to improve the CD Ratio to minimum 70%. _ Marketing of Online Instant In-principle Sanction for Housing Loan and Car Loan on digital platform throughout the year. _ Wide publicity of Housing Loan and Car Loan products especially during festival time to increase the visibility. _ Focus on reduction in turnaround time at RAH from 9 days to 7 days. _ Tie up with premier education institutions Viz. IIMs, IITs, NITs & other Premier institutes _ Extending the services of Direct Selling Agents to all the Circles. _ Chalking out quarterly schedule of Campaigns targeting different segments viz. Housing, Vehicle coinciding with festival season and Education coinciding with Admission period. MSME _ Each ELB/ VLB to identify and finance at least one Small & Medium Enterprises Unit every month. _ All branches to source and refer minimum one Credit proposal per quarter to their respective SME Sulabh for sanction. _ Focus on “PRODUCT SPECIFIC MONITORING”. _ MSME CONNECT- Mega Credit camps will be continued in each quarter of 2016-17 at all Circles on a single day to create and sustain awareness and pool sources for increased flow to MSME sector. _ Regular Camps & Cluster meets for sourcing the proposals will be conducted at Sulabhs and cluster of branches. _ START UP SUMMIT – Summits will be arranged at all centres for Start up Entrepreneurs inviting _ Distinguished guests from Government departments and local industrial bodies/organizations for necessary inputs and guidance for successful entrepreneurship. BANKING BUSINESS STRATEGY STRATEGY TO REDUCE NPA / STRESS ASSETS ACTION PLAN: Before formulating the strategy for reducing NPA's, a diagnostic study must be conducted to ascertain the reasons for high percentage of non-performing advances (NPAs). Thereafter, ABC analysis should be undertaken to identify the critical areas, which should focus the activities to be monitored by the Branch Head and those activities which can be delegated to the Asst Manager and Loans Officers. Positive Intentions (+ive), Negative Intentions (-lye) The information collected in the above formats will be converted into intelligence for drawing out the strategies and the action plan. TWO PRONGED STRATEGY: a) Increasing fresh advances and ensuring that they remain performing advances i.e. checking the slippage into nonperformance category. b) Recovery and adjustment of non-performing advances. A) INCREASING FRESH ADVANCES: SWOT analysis will be undertaken to aSsess the potential of credit off-take and also identify the industries / business ventures on the basis of products and services and also the changing environment. The survey done by Development Financial Institutions will be consulted as these provide adequate information. STEPWISE ACTION PLAN a) Scanning the area and preparing the profile of existing units / potential - sunrise areas in agriculture, industry, infrastructure, housing, retail.lending. b) Identifying Govt. agencies where there can be bulk credit off-take i.e., Indirect financing through corporations, boards and other agencies. c) Credit off-take through automobile financing and financing to consumers for white good durables d)Lending to stock brokers / investors against shares of blue chip companies in demat form. e) All existing A - Category ( high value standard category) borrowers will be contacted and motivated for introducing new borrowers / facilitating switch over to our banks. f) Quantitative targets will be fixed and progress reviewed on monthly basis. B) RECOVERY AND ADJUSTMENT OF NON - PERFORMING ADVANCES:

Since Head Office has fixed the targets for reducing the NPA percentage, as such the strategy at the branch level should clearly spell out the time frame. The target will be bifurcated on monthly basis so that corrective steps can be taken if the degree of variation in actual results and targets fixed is large. STEP - I : SEGMENTATION OF BORROWAL ACCOUNTS a) Experience indicates that the number of accounts in the category of Rs.50 lac and above is very small but percentage of amount involved in this category is very high. As such, this category of accounts will be monitored at personal level on daily / weekly basis. Accounts in the category of below Rs. 50 lac but up to Rs. 10 lac are small but amount involved will be high Accounts in the category of below Rs. 10 lac will be very large but percentage of amount involved will be less. As such, loan officer will be assigned the task for recovery and overall review will be undertaken by the manager and senior manager on personally level on monthly basis. The.theme behind the above strategy /classification is that, even if by monitoring and follow up, few very large accounts are shifted into performing category, the percentage of NPA's will reduce substantially. STEP - II: CLASSIFICATION OF ACCOUNTS ON THE BASIS OF VIABILITY AND INTENTION OF THE BORROWER The underlying idea is to develop structured action approach so that broad guidelines are provided to the manager and the loan officer for monitoring and follow-up. For this purpose the NPA accounts will be classified into four heads: a) NPA accounts which are viable and intention of the borrower is positive. b) NPA accounts which are non-viable and intention of the borrower is positive c) NPA accounts which are viable but intention of the borrower is negative. d) NPA accounts which are non-viable but intention of the borrower is negative. STEP - III: STRUCTURED ACTION APPROACH A) NPA ACCOUNTS WHICH ARE VIABLE AND INTENTIONS ARE POSITIVE. a) Reschedulement / restructuring and where enhancement of limit is required, the same will be done on priority basis. b) Need - based enhancement be done by taking adequate collaterals / third party guarantee. B) NPA ACCOUNTS WHICH ARE NON-VIABLE AND INTENTIONS ARE POSITIVE Borrowers will be encouraged for compromise / one time settlement (OTS). C) NPA ACCOUNTS WHICH ARE VIABLE BUT INTENTIONS ARE NEGATIVE Efforts will be made through guarantors / other influential person for regularisation of the account and thereafter adjustment of the accounts. 13) NPA ACCOUNTS WHICH ARE NON-VIABLE BUT INTENTIONS ARE NEGATIVE Here bank has no options but to go in for recovery through following actions: a) Criminal Action - Where security has been sold / misappropriated. b) Civil Suit / Debt Recovery Tribunal / Actions under SARFAESI Act for possession of the securities and thereby liquidation of outstandings. HOW TO INCREASE PROFITABILITY With the entry of Foreign / Private sector banks, competition in the banking sector has intensified putting a severe pressure on profitability. The 'Spread' or NIM (Net interest margin) is shrinking. As such, it has become necessary to focus on profit as a key to survival in the competitive environment. Profitability = 'SPREAD' + Other Income - Other Expenses,Where Spread = Interest Charged - Interest Paid Any exercise on increasing profitability has essentially to concentrate on following critical areas: a) Increasing Interest charged. b) Reducing Interest paid. c) Increasing Other Income / fee based income. d) Reducing or rationalisation of expenditure. STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING INTEREST CHARGED: a) Change in Advances - Mix: Lending to those sectors / segments where bank can charge higher rate of interest. b) Reducing NPA and recovery of Bad debts. c) Compromise / One Time Settlement (OTS) for recovery of non-viable cases. d) Plugging of revenue leakages. STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING INTEREST PAID: a) Change in Deposit-Mix (Increasing low cost deposits i. e, saving and current deposit)

b) Increasing float / pipe line deposits (as remittance etc.) STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING OTHER INCOME: a) Increasing non-fund based / fee based business. b) Cross-Selling of the products. c) Effective Cash management d) Investment in high-yielding securities. e) Handling of Merchant Banking business with focus on Issue Management / float funds and fee based income. STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING OR RATIONALISATION OF EXPENDITURE: Rationalizing of expenses such as telephone, electricity, stationery etc. CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN : Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a customer driven business strategy designed to optimize profitability,revenue and customer satisfaction. CRM is also a paradigm shift from "product centric and mass marketing" to "customer centric" way of business. CRM involves relationship marketing, which is to establish, maintain, enhance (long term) the relationship with the customers and other partners so that the objectives of the parties involved are met. This is achieved by mutual exchange and fulfilment of promises. CRM is based on the short-term orientation of the management with focus on achieving the following objectives: a) Attract new Customers. b) Increase Sales per customer. c) Reduce Costs through optimization of business process. d) Improve Customer relationship/increase loyalty. CRM has a number of positive effects on the running of a bank. It provides management with a clear picture of the business, facilitating decision-making. Using a common architecture and data mode, customer information can be shared faultlessly between front-end staff facing the customers to deliver services and the back-office staff who structure the deals. Front-end staff of a bank can profile a customer, create and maintain a customer account with contacts, manage activities, and explore business development possibilities. Similarly, a call center agent can maintain client data / information, produce call notes, replies to customer inquiries, and address and track customer service requests. In a nutshell, implementation of the CRM concept in banks can result in the following advantages: a) Speed and accuracy in information analysis. b) Foundation for organization-wide data and information. c) Understanding customer behaviour. d) Facilitating Business process re-engineering. e) Multiple products — credit deposits, investment, insurance etc. f) Multiple distribution channels — branch, Internet, call center, field sales etc. g) Multiple customers group — customers, small business, corporation etc. IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY: a) Motivation for Bank staff The first step in implementation of CRM in banks is to motivate and train the staff to do so. The motivation must come from the side of the management in the form of regular training in behavioural and functional aspect of banking. b) Change of Mind-set and Customer Classification Change of mind-set of staff members is very important. It should be realized that all customers are not equal. Customer profitability varies from person to person/context to context and not all customers are evenly desirable for the banks. Banks must differentiate their customers based on the 'value criteria' i.e. how valuable the customer is? Value is nothing but the profit the customer adds to the bank's account. Put simply, a more profitable customer is a 'high value' customer and a less profitable customer is a 'low value' customer. A bank's CRM system must also capture customers' taste, preference, behaviour, living style, age, education, cultural background, and physical and psychological characteristics, sensitivity etc., while differentiating them by the value criteria into low 'and high value customers. By combining the profitability potential of a given customer and his/her personality profile including their expectations, customers can be grouped into four categories as follows: 1) Low value / less profitable customer desiring high-grade service. 2) Low value / less profitable customer with potential to become high value in incoming days. 3) High value ! more profitable customer desiring high-grade service.

4) High value more profitable customer requiring low-grade service. Once the banks differentiate their customers vis-a-vis the profitability and their other traits, it becomes easy for banks to customize their services and offerings to maximize the overall value of their customer portfolio. c) Ambiance for Banking The customers are comfortable going to banks that have a customer friendly environment. It may be due to the vast expansion of the premises, personal cubicles created, plush interiors, soft furniture, etc. Some banks go to the extent of playing soft music, setting up coffee shops, display work of art, etc., to create the right ambiance for a perfect CRM. d) Customer Retention Retention of old customers is more profitable than acquiring new ones. Happy and satisfied old customer brings in many other new customers. It has been realised that it pays more to keep your existing customer content, which results in cross selling and purchase of products. SUGGESTIONS: a) The banks can be made more customers friendly. b) Top management and senior executives must be committed and dedicated so that the lower employees are adequately motivated to implement better CRM. c) More funds to be allotted for implementation of IT, which not only speeds up transactions for customers but also avoids unnecessary friction between employees and customers. d) It pays to appoint well-educated, young, smart, highly trained and motivated relationship managers. e) The bank employees must be informed about new products and services at regular intervals. The communication channel needs to be more efficient between the management and employees. Handbooks can be printed and circulated for this purpose. f) The preparation of customers profile is very necessary to have a customer data base. g) Data mining needs to be dope at regular intervals for effective cross selling of products. h) Bank employees of all cadres need to be trained in effective implementation of CRM. i) The net banking concept needs to be tapped fully by banks. Computerisation needs to be done in more and more branches and they also should be connected through computer network, e-mail, etc. j) The belief that banks have poor customer relationship needs to be shattered by improving their image, wide publicity and campaigning by the media which will help to a great extent. k) The efficient employees who have effectively implemented CRM need to be rewarded within the limits of the management. It has been revealed that untimely transfers and lack of rewards are the main factor that discourages practicing better CRM by employees. The management can work up schemes to award cash prizes or give additional points for promotion to those employees maintaining good relations with customers. I) New products are to be lalinched keeping in view the services offered by foreign banks. m) Unlike the traditional approach where customers are acquired through mass media advertising, CRM normally gets its customers through referrals. CREDIT OFF – TAKE AT BRANCH LEVEL BACKGROUND : Budget is not just allocation or fixing targets. It is consultative and participative exercise done by the Head Office and concerned Branch Managers in an open atmosphere. Lot of home -work goes into the whole exercise. Branch Head, is supposed to have good idea of business environment and potential of his target area. Apart from this, past performance is also available in the form of statements. Historical data on recovery, quality, NPAs, court cases, compromises etc. is also available. The most important information that is crucial in business performance is the quality of staff and management of personnel, which depend to a large extent, on the attitude of Branch Head, Zonal Head, and other officers as well as the status of industrial relations at the branch. OBJECTIVES: To ensure credit off-take to the targeted level, the principle underlined is that the Decision should transcend: a) The Safety and Security of advances. b) Profitability aspect of advances. c) Spread of risk branch wise, product wise, area wise and customer wise for reducing concentration of risk exposure. HOME WORK BEFORE TAMING BECOSION : The ABC analysis will be undertaken with the focus on the past data of the existing branches regarding both quantity and quality of advances and also the potential available, product-wise and customer-wise and area-wise.

The first step in the analysis of data will be to identify top hundred borrowers who are in the Standard category. They can be classified into manufacturers, exporters, wholesalers, retailers and others. A meeting/calls will be conducted / made, with these 100 borrowers with the purpose of assessing their future business requirements i.e. the enhancement of limits required by them. Even top 100 depositors will be identified and honored. Their business requirements will be assessed. The services of these 100 top borrowers will be utilized in identifying a chain. of new trade borrowers who have good reputation in the market and are also availing huge limits from other banks. The existing borrowers will also be used to persuade / motivate the new chain of borrowers to switch over to our bank. Different trade associations dealing in different products will be contacted through the top 100 trade borrowers and potential borrowers having huge borrowings with other bank will be identified for take-over. Identification of potential traders / dealers, through professionals such as Chartered Accountants, Cost Accountants, Tax Consultants etc., who are not dealing with our bank. The capacity, expertise and experience of. the staff dealing in advances will be assessed. If need be, a workshop for reinforcement of advances skills will be organized for the dealing staff. FIXATION OF TARGETS: The allocation of the targets will be done on the basis of mix of Customer-wise, Product-wise, Area-wise and Branch-Wise to ensure spread of risk. CUSTOMER WISE: Customer specific targets can be set on the basis of the homework undertaken. While allocating targets, it will be broadly kept in mind that 60% of the targets should be earmarked for the existing top good borrowers and 40% for new borrower identified through existing top borrowers, trade associations and by the branch managers. PRODUCT WISE: While allocating the targets, the nature of the product will be kept in view on the basis of characteristics such as perishability, price fluctuation, and demand forecasts. Further, a balance will be maintained so as to ensure against overexposure in a particular product segment. It has to be ensured that adequate collaterals/third party guarantees are taken invariably. In exceptional cases, the specific clearance will be necessary from the region. AREA WISE: There are some trading activities confined to some areas. For example, apple, potato, kinnow, vegetables like tomato, cauliflower, onion, garlic, ginger etc., such areas may have a number of wholesale dealers, commission agents, arhtias. The budget can be conveniently allocated to the branches in those areas. Past experience, NPAs and other qualitative aspects would of course be kept in view. BRANCH - WISE: There may be branches where specific products are traded like steel, furniture, construction material, timber, horticulture products and cash crops. Products specific budgets can be considered if past data about quality and recovery etc. is available. Some branches have predominance of wholesale traders, being historically established at the towns/ cities to serve as the source of supply to the remote places. These branches are having potential provided the past experience of trade advances has been satisfactory. While selected branches, specific areas and specific products would always be in sharp focus, no branch would be allowed to feel neglected and, similarly, no branch having no potential would be unnecessarily burdened. So, while all the above three considerations will be kept in mind, selectivity will guide the exercise. MARKETING OF RETAIL BANKING PRODUCTS Retail Banking is a composite activity encompassing the banking products and services specially designed for meeting the ongoing requirements of 'individual' customer. An individual customer develops banking habit mainly for three purposes,namely: a.For making Investments, b. For raising loans, and For availing any of the subsidiary services. Retail banking, therefore, becomes complete only when all these financial needs of an individual customer are met to his utmost satisfaction under one roof. Retail Banking is being increasingly focused in Indian. Banking industry today mainly due to high margin and low risk nature of the business coupled with the, increasing pace of consumerism in India. Other factors, such as, increased' economic activity, increase in purchasing power of the consumers, especially that of the younger generation, a huge middle class population, innovations in technology and low interest rate regime have contributed to growth of retail financing. With increasing competition, 'spread' in the Indian banking industry is under strain. As such, banks need to shift their

focus to innovative products and services, which are profitable. If banks intend to prosper, profitability of products and customer should become buzz word for them. MARKETING STRATEGIES 'Marketing' is a composite activity, which includes market study, designing of products, delivering and ensuring proper after sales services. In a 'race' it is the 'pace' that counts and for attaining a 'winning pace', marketing strategies have to be designed. Latest technology can be used by banks to target products to the right potential customers, by maintaining a database of customer profiles and their likely financial needs. Data mining has to be strengthened, as it will help banks in formulating products for specific set of customers. The first step in designing the strategy is to identify the target customers and target products for which market segmentation exercise has to be undertaken. a) Market Segmentation: Segmentation of existing as well as potential retail clientele into housewives, professionals, salaried personnel, workers, company executives, businessmen, farmers be done to identify the needs of the target group and facilitate structuring financial products I services to match their needs. Further, the same data can be utilized for evolving different techniques of marketing depending on the target groups. b) Central Data Base: Bank should build up a central database to contain the profile of all high value retail clientele. Communication (either as seasonal greetings or for highlighting the significant measures for improved services, new products) through 'e' mail / postal mode should be sent at regular intervals from the corporate office itself directly to those high value customers identified by the marketing team stationed at all key delivery units. c) Financial Super Market: In view of the exposure of Indian customers to global products and services they have become more demanding, and they want fast, convenient and hassle-free services from banks in India. The traditional loyalty and inertia associated with the Indian consumer is changing very fast. As such the success of retail marketing largely depend on how banks understand its customers and the market. Development of skills for managing customers has become of crucial importance,if banks of today have to survive. Bank should become a 'one stop shop' for all the banking needs and services. For the retailers investing in low cost deposit schemes, add-on benefits like demand drafts, funds transfer facility, Anywhere Banking, ATM cards, name printed cheque books, monthly statement of accounts (direct to residence / office), Customer terminal (installed at their. premises),concessional collection charges, Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, Depository services, Portfolio Management Service,standing instructions, Insurance products should be extended either at concessional or nil cost. A cost study should be conducted to introduce a business linked tariff structure for all these services. All these services with technology should instill in the customer a sense of pride in banking with us. d) Retail Financing as Core Activity: Banks should prepare a list of preferred areas of retail finance town-wise, keeping the potential in view. SWOT analysis will help in identifying high profile towns from retail lending point of view. This will help in making focussed attention on retail financing by banks in specific potential areas. Ground work required for retail financing will involve: • Operational Manuals: To ensure uniformity and facilitate faster appraisal and decision making, operational manual has to be developed by banks. With this staff members at the grass roots level will not violate norms and by pass systems and procedures. • Credit Scoring & Loan Pricing model: To enable the frontline staff to take quick credit decisions, an efficient credit scoring and loan pricing system has to be designed. This will strengthen credit appraisal and post- sanction monitoring systems. • Centralised Processing: To have a competitive edge and gain the critical mass in the high volume game, the processing activity can be centralized. Processing excellence is crucial to sales and service quality. e) Portfolio Management Services: A retail investor still prefers 'safety' to 'returns' and hence Banks are the ultimate choice. Series of failures elsewhere have already made the investors lean towards the Banks. Bank can have portfolio management services for the retail investors so that they can have all investment options under one roof. • Target Approach: Targets can be fixed for all the units & teams dispensing retail banking products. • Well-Trained Marketing Teams: A product can be got sold in this highly competitive environment only through committed well-trained marketing teams. Exclusive marketing teams specially trained for this purpose should be stationed in all key places to ensure market presence and penetration. In all other places, the people at the delivery unit themselves should form the marketing team. • Brand Equity: Customer preference, under the present environment, is towards branded items. Brand equity should be created for all retail banking products and services through regular road shows, seminars, advertisements, exhibitions, market penetration.

• Pricing of Products and Services: For retail lending schemes, it is always the "cost" and 'care' that counts and these two aspects haunt the minds of retail borrowers. Rate of interest for the loans under retail lending should be rather based on the risk profile and where the credit risk is low or nil, the rate of interest should be the lowest and for others uniform guidelines for graded interest rates be introduced. • Feedback: A system for regular interaction and feedback from the retail 'customers be evolved to facilitate constant review and fine-tuning of strategies. • Non-Cash Incentives: Norms for non-cash incentives be evolved for the teams doing excellent business in retail banking. • Frill Benefits / Add-ons: All schemes under 'Retail lending" be insurance linked and procedural formalities to be reduced. Norms for 'Back ended interest rebate' for prompt repayments be also evolved to make the schemes still more attractive and customer friendly. TURN AROUND OF A BRANCH MIND SET – UP : The first step is to undertake the diagnostic study of the reasons the branch is running into loss. This will include scanning of the environment identifying the business potential and drawing up a strategy for turn-around of the branch.The ABC analysis both for deposits and advances will be undertaken. The target area will be scanned and all business potential entities I groups will be identified and quantified. Different associations / agencies will be used as a business promotion vehicle. Micro-analysis will be undertaken on a time frame 'basis. Target will be fixed and efforts made to achieve the same in the time schedule. STEP - WISE ANALYSIS WILL FOCUS ON: a) Scanning the area and preparing the profile of existing units / potential - sunrise areas in agriculture, industry,infrastructure, housing, retail lending. b) Identifying Govt. agencies where they can be bulk credit off-take i.e., Indirect Financing through corporations, boards and other agencies. c) Credit off-take through automobile financing and financing to consumers for white good durables, Lending to Stock Brokers / investors against shares of blue chip companies in demat form. d) All existing 'A' — Category (standard category) borrowers will be contacted and motivated for introducing new borrowers /facilitating switch over to our banks. e) Quantitative targets will be fixed and progress reviewed on monthly basis. The profitability could be achieved in two ways. Firstly, by earning more income, and secondly, by reducing or rationalizing expenditure. We can work on the following lines, keeping in mind our location. A) Income Oriented Activities; B) Expenditure Saving Activities;, C) Generation of Income through competitive services; D) Recovery Aspect. A) INCOME ORIENTED ACTIVITIES: The first step is to short list income generating sectors. The target area will be scanned and business potential activities such as schools, colleges, universities, .trade associations, industries, business ventures etc., will be listed. The activities should be focused keeping in mind following features: (a) Identification of existing SMALL/Medium Industrial Unit Situated in the Area. We should identify the SSI and other medium industries, which are working successfully in the area and are having their accounts with other banks. The details can be obtained from District Industries Centre. A list of successful small and medium industries working in the area could be obtained. The existing 'A category borrowers be pursued to introduce new good borrowers so that bank can facilitate them to switch over to your bank. (b) Facilities to Road Transport Operators: In the similar way, automobile dealers of buses; trucks and auto rickshaws could be contacted. If possible, a small advertisement display of the bank could be placed near their showrooms, with their consent. Assistance could be given to such road transport operators of the area. The well-established schools and colleges working in the area could also be contacted. Such institutions require vehicles for transporting their students. (c) Assistance to Distributors and Wholesale Traders Bank can approach various authorized dealers, distributors and other wholesale traders who have well-established business. They

could be requested to switch over to our bank. Their proposal could be got sanctioned frOm the higher authorities, if not within the vested powers of the branch manager. Such finance carry higher rate of interest and is collaterally well secured. The traders are financially sound and the possibility of the accounts becoming sticky, is very less because they have a wide spread network of retail outlets for their sales. (d) Assistance for Housing Housing loan is yet another important segment. It is a long-term income-yielding sector. Well reputed contractors; builders and architects could be contacted to know about the prospective customers. Municipal authorities could also be helpful in this purpose. Subsequently, the parties could be contacted to avail housing finance from our branches. B) EXPENDITURE SAVING ASPECTS: it is very common phrase that penny saved is the penny earned. We may have to put some extra efforts for earning extra income: But we can save a lot with a bit of care and proper management. The things, which appear very minor and petty in nature, go a long way in lot of savings. These even, are capable to turn loss-bearing units into profit earning units. Some of the important aspects where wastage could be avoided are as follows: a) Over staffing could be avoided. b) Staff should be properly utilized. c) Switches of fans and tubes should be at the nearest point to the working officer so that lights could be switched off as soon as the staff leaves. d) Misuse of Bank's vehicles should be checked. e) Proper log registers should be maintained and checked immediately on the return of the concerned employees. Vehicles should be properly got serviced at regular intervals so that wear and tear is reduced and fuel consumption is optimum. f) The articles, which are not in use, should be disposed-off with the prior sanction of the higher authorities. These should not be dumped unnecessarily. g) Record keepers and other subordinate staff members should be advised to maintain stationery properly. h) The sub standard article should not be purchased because they require regular repairing, and ultimately result into loss and inconvenience. i) The expenditure bearing articles should be replaced with new economical gadgets and articles. C) COMPETITIVENESS IN BANK'S SERVICES: Within the prescribed limit, branch can bring competitiveness in some of the services. For example, with prior permission, bank draft charges, lockers charges etc. could be conveniently re-fixed which may yield more income but do not effect service. If the charges levied by the bank are on higher side with comparison to other banks operating in the area, the case could be taken up with the higher authorities for the reduction of the same. D) RECOVERY ASPECT: Recovery of sticky and overdue loan accounts should be given top priority. Such accounts affect adversely the working of the branch in two ways. Such accounts should be short listed and field staff be given necessary instructions to maintain a regular and constant touch with the defaulters. Legal aspects should also not be delayed. Efforts should be made to get the recoveries through compromise. Such proposals should be forwarded to the higher authorities at priority level HOW TO IMPROVE INSPECTION / AUDIT GRADATION OF YOUR BRANCH The first step to handle the audit / inspection report is to prioritise the irregularities / discrepancy. Irregularities 1 discrepancies which are of serious and very sensitive nature and can cause financial loss to the bank, has to be given the top most priority and efforts will be made to rectify the same instantly. The monitoring and follow - up of irregularities has to be done on daily basis by the branch head himself. The irregularities be classified as follows: a) Section wise listing of irregularities: First of all the irregularities should be sorted out section wise. The departments, like deposits and advances, which are looked after by more than one officer, the lists of the irregularities should be made as per sub sections or as per work handled by the different officers. This would make it convenient to refer to the records, recording the irregularities removed and in some other aspects as well. b) Picking up the Experienced Staff for Removal of Irregularities: Well -experienced staff members should be listed, sector or business wise for removal of the irregularities. Technical officers or field staff could be taken up for irregularities related to the field job where we have to approach the customers.
c) Prioritizing the Irregularities: All the irregularities should be separately listed according to the gravity or the seriousness. Top priority irregularities pertaining to limitation, wrong documentation, stock

reports, cash department and so on should be given personal attention. A proper follow up should be maintained. d) Issue of Office order for removal of irregularities; A proper office order be issued to get the irregularities removed in a time bound frame. The officer order should also indicate the time for submission of progress made in this effort, i.e. weekly,fortnightly etc. FOLLOW – UP : a) Monitoring: The concerned employees be asked to submit their report to the Assistant Manager, who, in turn will submit the consolidated report to the incumbent incharge. The incumbent incharge may submit the progress report to the controlling officer accordingly. b) Instructions for Future: It is more important that the irregularities are not repeated in future. The staff members working on different seats should be asked in writing to follow the prescribed procedure strictly in letter and spirit. This will reduce the number of irregularities to a considerable low. The checking officials or officers should be asked to do proper checking. c) System of individual diarising the pendencies: A system should be adopted that pendencies pertaining to incomplete work be diarised by the individual Officers seat wise. The officer working on the seat should maintain the dairy on daily basis. The same should be completed at the particular date noted in the diary. Most of the irregularities occur because they slip out of mind. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Human Resource Management (HRM) broadly refers to a positive approach to the management of an organization's people who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of sustainable competitive advantage. It basically refers to the management and development of the employees, to match with the business strategy of the organization. The FIRM philosophy is based on positive commitment towards the development of employees for ensuring their growth,development and performance to enhance human capital in the bank. The HRM model is composed of policies that promote mutual growth for achieving mutual goals coupled with mutual responsibilities and rewards, which in turn will yield both better economic performance and greater human development. AIMS OF HRM IN CHANGING ENVIRONMENT • HRM is seen as a partner aligned to business strategy, not only participating in setting performance objective of any employee but also creating development opportunity to achieve them. • To enable management to achieve organisational objectives through its workforce. _ To foster commitment in employees which will facilitate to gain competitive advantage. _ To establish an environment in which the latent creativity of the workforce will be unleashed. _ To achieve "strategic fit" between business strategy and HRM so that there is consistency between policy goals of HRM and that of the business. KEY STRATEGIC ISSUES IN HRM From the intervention strategy perspective, HRM must contextually respond to the following issues: ORGANISING PEOPLE TO WORK EFFECTIVELY A key starting point for effective human resource management is to build an organisational structure that is designed specially to carry out the bank's mission and strategy. The first and foremost task of HRM in banks, therefore, would be to organize its people so as to enable them to work effectively. OPTIMIZE THE ORGANISATION STRUCTURE - UP GRADATION OF TECHNOLOGY The technology up-gradation in the wake of competition has the effect of taking banks to become more efficient and capable of responding to the market conditions. The business strategies and technology up-gradation has a direct impact on the organisational structure. HRM must be able to re-design organisational structure as per external changes, business strategies and one step ahead of the competitor. Work process re-engineering to achieve greater efficiency and cost effectiveness must be attempted. BUILD THE RIGHT SKILLS AND WORK CULTURE Banks must have employees who offer the necessary range of job specific skills and whose attitude towards their work and,colleagues enable them to channel their skills and energies into performing productively for bank and its customers. ELIMINATING SKILL GAP Introduction of newer technologies by itself does not improve performance of banks. Introduction of new technologies necessarily involve re-examination of the existing human process so as to deliver better results. New technologies need new skills

but they do not replace human skills. The centralised core banking solution package being introduced in banks would necessitate far reaching changes in managerial practices besides rendering surplus age of employees. RE-LOCATION OF SURPLUS EMPLOYEES Focus of HRM should be to plan for effective relocation and utilisation of displaced employees and effective use of back office data. BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING Outsourcing, which is quite simply the transfer of operational responsibility of business processes, infrastructure management of an IT application to a third party for a fee, is gaining, acceptance amongst corporates globally so that they can concentrate on their core business i.e. banking. TOTAL ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION: Optimal results of technology implementation can be achieved with proper grooming, placements, training, rotation and changing the mind-set of the staff. HR is the key element in implementation of technology since men have to run, manage, operate and command the technology. BENEFITS OF TOTAL ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION Public Sector Banks will have the following tangible business benefits by total enterprise transformation. e Enhanced Competitiveness 0 Enhanced Operational Efficiency 0 Enhanced Customer Satisfaction. Enhanced Accountability • Better Financial management 0 Better Risk management MANAGERIAL ROLES Role is a position, which a person occupies in an organization, defined by the expectations of others (significant groups or individuals), and by himself. Role should be properly defined to avoid ambiguity, overlapping, transgression & stress. AS A PLANNER: A manager undertakes planning, which envisages goal setting and resource mobilization, essential for achievement of pre-determined and thoughtfully scheduled organisational goals. Appropriate strategies are worked out with periodical review if and when warranted by environment, particularly competition. AS A PERFORMER: A manager shows commitment and devotion. He sets example by bringing about congruence between personal objectives and organizational goals: He identifies Key Performance Areas (KPAs). His performance is quantifiable and visible. He lays down challenging tasks for himself, aims high, puts in hard work and becomes a trailblazer. AS AN ORGANIZER: A manager is an effective organizer of material and human resources. He ensures to utilize resources economically to give optimum results. He cares for human resources, plans training & development, motivates people,establishes instant and spontaneous rapport with others and creates conducive working climate. He infuses values and reinforces concepts like cost consciousness, total quality management leadership, responsibility to society, loyalty to organization, fellow feeling among the staff, zeal for intrapreneurship and innovation. AS A LEADER: A manager develops team, energizes organization and team members, motivates staff, shares knowledge, acts only after full investigation, invites suggestions, accepts change and enforces change through consultation and persuasion, keen on creativity and encourages creativity in the organisation, skilled in negotiation and communication. He is also self-confident, obeys codes of ethics & morality, shows high maturity, good listener and skilled in resolution of conflicts. He treats colleagues with respect. He acts in the true spirit of friend, philosopher and guide (counselor). AS A MOTIVATOR: A manager knows that people are invaluable resources of the organization. He keeps them motivated to accomplish goals. He knows that motivation is the resultant behaviour propelled by need arousal. People move from lower level (basic) needs to higher level needs (status and social recognition); they desire to reach a level of self-actualization. A manager, therefore, uses tact and philosophy to create a desire in his colleagues to have a vision of attaining higher goals and work for the same with dedication. AS A COMMUNICATOR: Makes clear and understandable communications, down the line. Informs Controller with facts and convincing logic. His communication is effective. He insists on feed-back. He gladly gives clarification, if sought. His communications are polite but firm and specific. He prefers discussing subjects threadbare in meetings. He does not take offence if opposite views are expressed; he removes fear in meetings. AS A MONITOR: He ensures compliance through statements and returns. He insists on feedback. Achievement of budgeted levels is appreciated liberally and negative variance is taken as opportunity to look into the environmental / hindering factors for suitable remedial actions, which he suggests. He offers support, if any, required.

AS A CHANGE AGENT & CATALYST: Changes take place regularly, sometimes abruptly, both internally and externally. He explains changes and their consequences; invites reactions, allays fears and persuades to accept changes for better results. Rationale is explained, holistic position described in global context, ensures acceptance of change willingly. AS A VISIONARY: Only a visionary manager thinks of extra-ordinary possibilities, he experiments on new possibilities and allows his subordinates to do likewise. He excuses routine and genuine mistakes. Vision brings about super synergy in the team, which is a force to meet and beat competition and become a winner. Vision infuses confidence and encourages killing instinct, and this is required in today's competitive environment. AS A IMAGE BUILDER: A manager represents an organisation. He builds its image, conducts him self-well, he projects his organization by his good deeds and actions. He has to ensure good working climate,. courtesy on the part of the staff, helpful & supportive attitude of all in the organisation towards the public calling at the premises or contacting on telephone etc., prompt & efficient customer service, zero mistake operations, prompt reply to communications, tailor-making schemes for certain target groups and sense of discipline on the part of all. He ensures that visit to the organisation is a delight indeed. AS A COORDINATOR: It is the responsibility of the manager to coordinate different aspects of an organisation. It is necessary to create the harmony between manpower, available resources and decides targets for effectiveness, efficiency and growth. All these roles culminate into the role of developer and this role can be achieved only by having the concept of 'leading by example'. WHAT MAKES A GOOD MANAGER PROBLEM SOLUTION (CONFLICT RESOLUTION) • JUDGEMENT SKILL — Distinguishes between what's important or controllable, and between what is not important or uncontrollable. Identifies who is skilled enough to handle an issue or reconcile a conflict situation. Ensures and priorities within time-frame work. • ANALYTICAL SKILL & INTEGRATIVE ABILITY— Identifies inconsistency in message contents and subtle relationships in information. Identifies facts from various and unconnected sources, and relates them to arrive at conclusions. Familiarizes with concepts. • DECISION MAKING AS CORE ACTIVITY— Considers the relevant facts for developing and evaluating all possible alternatives for solving a problem, habitually draws upon colleagues for suggestions, affords opportunity to the subordinates to develop. Realistic, practical constraints are considered and helping factors identified. • ADAPTABILITY — According to Charles Darwin, "it is not the strongest nor the ablest who survive, but it is the one who adapt to change that survive". A manager performs under less than optimum conditions e.g. unstructured problems, too little time and/or resources, insufficient information, mismatch between individual's skills and job requirements. • PERSONAL IMPACT— Affects others, convinces those holding opposing or neutral positions, push through interest or ideas despite opposition due to personal influence, style, endeavour, and ability to carry along colleagues. Takes charge of situation quickly, decides. INTER-PERSONAL SKILLS • COMMUNICATION: Communication instructions and proposals with facts and in clear and understandable language, avoids ambiguity, ensures feedback, listens patiently and carefully, holds meeting in cordial and encouraging manner and invites suggestions. • MANAGING INDIVIDUALS — Understands management principles and concepts, assists subordinates and peers involving management experts, to achieve their business and career objectives. Listens to others, acknowledges their strengths, and volunteers to remove their weaknesses. Ensures support and guidance, and understands individual differences. • PLANNING AND MANAGING GROUP PERFORMANCE — Formulates participative plans to achieve job objectives as part of organisational objectives, undertakes mid-term review of business plan, if found unrealistic or unreasonable due to environmental changes, sensitive to group co-operation, productivity and profitability. Sets up quality•circles and pushes forward through team spirit towards zero defect operations. • CONFLICT MANAGEMENT — Objectivity despite stress. Addresses conflict directly and tactually. • DIPLOMACY — Negotiates with win-win situation. Tailors approach to take into account the perceptions, needs or motivation of others, giving reasons and explanations for requests. PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES • COMMUNICATION — Speaks and writes well. Adapts communication style to suit the audience. Is easily understood. Ensures two-way communication. Gives clarification, if wanted.

• DECISIVENESS —Firm, chooses among alternatives, confronts higher management decisions. • CREATIVITY — Provides/anticipates new perspectives, approaches, experimentation. ENERGY • ACTIVITY LEVEL — Sustains high level of activity including speed, volume of work accomplished, endurance, balance, composure, civility, and enlightenedleadership. • FLEXIBILITY — Handles challenges. Copes with multiple changing demands and setbacks. STRATEGIC & OPERATIONAL CONTROL • STRATEGIC & ORGANIZATIONAL AWARENESS — Possesses awareness of interests and objectives of the organization, develops own plans and actions as part of overall organisational plan. Coordinates with and provides assistance to other units, keeps updated on changes. • ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL— Prepares plans & tracks; documents the progress of programmes. Designs control systems. Keeps abreast of the details, which support them. • TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT — Ensures more technical expertise on the job than managerial expertise on the job. Provides current technical skills to subordinates and others to stay competitive in market. COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS & ASSESSMENT: Environment threat and opportunity analysis is required to know the strategy of the competitors and entry of new competitors and comparison of our resources and strategy with their plans. DELIVERING CUSTOMER DELIGHT Human beings are unique and complex entities. Each develops his/her own self-image, likes and dislikes. So is the case with our customers. Each of the customers has different features, characteristics and expectations - unique in one's own way: Global Customers: Often our customers operate in more than one country and their products, services, operations, and their end-users too are spread all over the world. To serve them means, 'thinking global". Technology Oriented Customers: Such customers focus on technology as their change agent which virtually governs the dynamics of their daily drills and they execute their plans with long-term leaps. For serving them we go by the dictum "thinking ahead, thinking competencies". Customers which are Demanding and Competitive:They judge themselves by making comparisons as to, what they can do better than their competitors do. How quickly and smartly they stay. They determine their success by positioning ahead in the market arena. In their case, it means to us "thinking business". Constantly Benchmarking Customers: They believe in setting standards not to stick to them as they consider them minimum, only to be raised consistently and quickly. Reaching global benchmarks is a given thing for them. Measuring quality, finding ways of removing or reducing defects and pursuing excellence constantly are ongoing commitment for them. They make us do "thinking metrics, thinking excellence'. Cost Focussed Customers: Business today is more conscious of pressure on bottom lines. Reducing costs, improving operational efficiencies are the things of the day. For such customers, we commit "thinking cost-effective solutions". HOW TO PROCEED TO SATISFY OUR CUSTOMERS? We must adopt a policy of collaboration / partnership with our customers to deliver the needed and perceived business solutions. The following propellers are indispensable in this regard: a) A matching mindset: We have to develop a mindset that not only brings about understanding of customers' needs and expectations but also dig deep to empathize with the customers' latent expectations needed relevant technologies and business goals. We can then succeed to deliver solutions with genuine passion. b) Honouring Delivery Schedule: Solutions have not only to be need-specific but also time-specific. Looking for ways to deliver solutions not just on time but ahead of time is the core of success in serving customers. c) Reservoir of Competencies to Lead: Highly competent professionals with rich domain competencies to understand the business of customers better must be in position. The technical team has to be supported to develop solutions for the customers, recognizing fully well that customers seek solutions, not technology. d) Cutting down on Cost: Rupee saved is rupee earned. The solutions, processes, and people should all be bottomline-focussed. Twin strategies of cost reduction and cost savings go hand-in-hand. These lead to. a discernible increase in operational efficiencies, resulting in increasing value for the customers' shareholders.

e) Value Addition: Adding value enhances customer delight. Endeavour to add value to every facet of the customer interaction has to be a permanent feature. Think of value addition to customer, relevant existing process, new plan, innovative idea etc. MEASURE AND DELIGHT APPROACH: Quality benchmarking being ongoing process means going beyond global benchmarks such as ISO 9001-2000, SEI-CMM Level 5 and other standard requirements. The goal should be to constantly raise the bar. Measurements monitoring, modifying and excelling help to apply the best quality practices for the customers. PROBLEM SOLVING & DECISION MAKING With the integration of Indian economy with the rest of the world, the pace of changes in the environment has increased, leading to an increase in organization problems. Dynamic management of an organization demands understanding the change, nature of change and the direction of the change. Manager by the process of decision-making undertakes to minimize the impact of changes and increase effectiveness for achieving organizational objectives. Decision-making is the process of selecting a course of action from among several alternatives. It is selection of the best possible alternative for the solution of a given problem. STEPS OF DECISION MAKING a) Problem Identification - Problems arise due to disparity between ' what is' and ' what should be'. The threats of environmental changes also create decision problem. A manager should identify and define the real problem in a straight way. A problem well defined is half solved. The problem should be classified on the following basis: • Nature of the decision, i.e. whether it is strategiINGc or routine. • Impact of the decision on the various functions of the business. • Futurity of the decision. • Periodicity of the decision, and • Limiting or strategic factors relevant to the decision. b) Diagnosing the Problem: Diagnosing the problem is knowing the real cause of the gap between what is and what should be. The problem should be understood in terms of its elements, its magnitude, its urgency, its course, and its relations with other problems. All pertinent facts and information must be collected and analysed to diagnose the problem quickly and correctly. c) Developing Alternatives: A manager, while making decision, should search for various alternatives, which should be identified and analysed. There is a no problem of decision making if there is only one way of solving a problem. A wide range of alternatives increases the freedom of decision maker. However such alternatives should not be considered which are not possible to be accomplished due to a limiting factors. d) Selection of Best Alternative: After evaluation of the various alternatives, the decision maker has to select the best alternative or that alternative which contributes maximum to the given objectives. It should be ensured that the decision taken is practicable, stable and it is not creating another problem. e) Implementation Decision: It implies laying down of derivative plans and their communication to all concerned who are responsible for its implementation within a given timeframe. f) Follow-Up: The implementation of the decision should be constantly monitored. No matter how scientific it is, decisionmaking has no guarantee that it is hundred percent correct. It may be defective and may cause loss to the organization. As such its progress should be watched carefully to minimise the chances of loss. If the decision taken is not yielding the desired results, necessary changes should be made in the decision or its implementation. Thus an effective follow-up may control the major deviation in time. One of the best ways to analyze the decision is to use the most common Decision Trees approach. Decision Trees depict, in the form of a tree, the decision points, chance events, and probability involved in various courses that might be undertaken. This approach makes it possible to see atleast the major alternatives and the fact that subsequent decision may depend upon events in the future.

TIPS & TECHNIQUES OF GROUP DISCUSSION

TIPS & TECHNIQUES OF GROUP DISCUSSION
Group Discussion Tips (GD) A group discussion (GD) is a simulated exercise. The note attempts to present a few tips on GD and how to handle them to ensure a positive outcome. Here's how most group discussions work: Normally groups of 8-10 candidates are formed into a leaderless group, and are given a specific situation to analyze and discuss within a given time limit. The group may be given a case study and asked to come out with a solution for a problem. The group may be given a topic and asked to discuss on the same. A panel will observe the proceedings and evaluate the members of the group. GD forms the primary stage of contact between the interviewer and interviewee. In this methodology, the group of candidates (may be in between 6 to 10 depends on the bank) given a topic or a situation, given a few minutes to think about the same, and then asked to discuss among themselves for about 10 minutes. The objective of GD is to judge the listening skills, attitude and confidence levels besides gauge analytical, leadership and decision making skills. Normally, the successful persons are one who communicate and interact with the group members with ease and clarity. The candidates need to inculcate the following traits for better results. 1. Listen carefully - Listen to the topic carefully and understand it. Be alert and vigilant. Sometimes, the topic may be really simple but the manner in which it is presented to you can be baffling. Make a rough sketch of the points that you would like to speak. Try and listen to the participants, respect their viewpoint too. This will also show that you are vigilant and are an active participant in the discussion. 2. Initiation – Take lead to initiate the Group Discussion, if you are happened to be the first speaker. But keep in mind that should have reasonable understanding of the topic. Speaking without proper subject knowledge may give poor impression. 3. Communication - Be well versed with topic and communication. You should have a good vocabulary and a good command over language. Rehearse well. 4. Simple & Sensible - Speak clearly and use simple and understandable words while speaking. Express your feelings calmly and politely. Be precise. Do not speak just to increase your speaking time. Even if you speak less but ensure that your thoughts are sensible and relevant. 5. Body Language: Besides what you are saying, remember that the panellists are observing your body language as well. Body gestures are very important because your body language says a lot about you. In a GD, sit straight; avoid leaning back on to the chair or knocking the table with a pen or your fingers. Do not look at the evaluators only. Keep eye contact with every team member while speaking. 6. Be accommodative - Speak less and listen more! Pay attention while others are speaking. Do not interrupt anyone in-between while speaking. If you do not agree with the other’s point of view, do not raise your tone in objection. Listen to his point of view and instead of dismissing it upfront, try and draw a common ground. Deviating from the main topic or passing strong statements like ‘I agree or disagree’ should be avoided. Your strategy should be to test the waters and make a generic statement relevant to the topic. 7.Formal dressing – Last but not the least, the dressing should be appropriate to the occasion and avoid fancy and funny dressing Top 10 basic group discussion tips Top basic Group Discussion tips include tips to Prepare For Group Discussions before and during the Group Discussion round and important Do’s and Don’ts. Below are shared the Group Discussion Tips to hone your Group Discussion skills: Do’s
1. Rich Content with good subject knowledge Having good subject knowledge and rich content is the first and foremost GD tip to enter the Group Discussion Round. Following are the key steps to improve your Group discussion skills in regard to GD content preparation: You should prepare on variety of topics as rich and right subject knowledge will be
required during GD round. You should have subject knowledge and be well aware of the latest happenings around you, not just in India but around the world as well. Subject knowledge is a pre-requisite while you are preparing for a group discussion because you will then have the power to steer the conversation to whichever direction you want to. If you can memorize some relevant data, it will be an added advantage. If you are a good reader and read on variety of topics, it will help you in group discussion round. There is no need for last minute preparation. You should read over a period of time. Reading not only adds to your knowledge database, but enhances your vocabulary skills as well. Always choose the magazines that are content rich and not just full of advertisements. Often magazines have columns which are promoting a particular institute etc. Avoid such magazines, do some research and buy the best that will be beneficial for you. 2. Be a Leader There is no doubt that to emerge a winner in GD round you should speak after getting a grasp on the given topic. But it also gives you opportunity to take lead. So be a leader to begin the Group Discussion. Key tips are: Usually when the moderator announces the GD topic, for a minute there is silence all round. If possible, gather your thoughts in a few seconds and start the Group discussion with positive impact and be a leader. If you find that it is taking time to gather ideas, let others begin, and then enter the GD round by agreeing/disagreeing with previous speakers. Beginning the Group Discussion gives the opportunity to make an impact but if you are not able to make your point well, it will create negative effect. Therefore, it is not necessary to speak first but it is necessary that when you speak you are heard and are able to make your point well.If you are able to speak out the name of your previous speaker and then present your views, it will mark a good impact. 3. Be relevant When you speak you should speak to the point without any ambiguity of thought Express your ideas at length. If you simply follow the other speaker or his ideas, remember your elimination is imminent Wherever possible, emphasize your point with facts and figures 4. Be a good Listener Learn to be a good listener. Listening Skills are Essential for GD round, so carefully listen to what others have to say. Just speaking throughout the discussion doesn’t make you better. You should learn to give others a chance to speak. Try and listen to others.If the speaker is making an eye-contact with you remember to acknowledge him by nodding your head, so that the speaker is aware that his listeners are listening to him and paying full attention. This will also show that you are vigilant and are an active participant in the discussion. Unless you listen well, it will not be possible for you to add value to your content and communication Listening offers you the opportunity to summarise the Group Discussion on each and every aspect. 5. Improve your Communication Skills You may have good and rich content with lot of ideas but if you are not able to communicate well your thoughts and opinions, all is useless. The need is now to improve your communication skills with following GD tips: Be well versed in your communication skills. You should have a good vocabulary and a decent command over English. Much before your actual group discussion, rehearse well. You can sit with a group of friends and choose a topic and indulge in a friendly GD. Not only will this increase your knowledge, you will be a better speaker by the time it is time for your GD. In case you are not sure about something, you can use phrases such as: “I think” or “Probably/Approximately” or “If I remember correctly” 6. Body gestures: Very important tool for Group Discussion The panelists observe the way you sit and react in the course of the discussion. Body gestures are very important, because your body language says a lot about you. In a GD, sit straight, avoid leaning back on to the chair or knocking the table with pen or your fingers. Also, do not get distracted easily. Nervous body movements, folding your hands across your chest, having skeptical expression, constantly moving, evading eye movements are the indicators of a negative personality and should be avoided at all costs. Don’ts 7. No Aggressive Move It is expected during the Group Discussion that you are firm on your ideas and are audible enough to make an impact on the group. But being aggressive, shouting and not allowing others in the group to speak, is not appreciated. So be careful and don’t be a bully.

8. Don’t Crisscross on your Ideas Don’t crisscross your ideas. The topics given in Group Discussion are debatable, you might like to speak for or against the topic and while speaking don’t forget that you may be crossing your own lines. It gives a bad impact and you are judged a person who has no stand for his own thought. 9. Don’t be a part of fish market As a team player, your ability to lead and play in team is measured in the GD. During the Group Discussion there are many instances where you will find every one is saying something and no one is heard. It is better to be quiet for a while and then after gathering your thoughts, raise your voice initially and make your point. 10. Don’t give up: Make multiple entries Don’t be content with one round of one minute or half a minute speaking in the group. Focus on key points, form the ideas and opinions to enter again based on the views presented by others to further strengthen your view point. The Group Discussion round passes through highs and lows. So it is a good opportunity to re-enter the Group Discussion after gathering more ideas coming out of others’ view and make an entry when the noise level is low in Group Discussion. Group Discussion(GD) - Skills Evaluated Group discussion is an important dimension of the selection process. Any organization requires students to work with others for effective functioning. In today's context, the educational institutes and organizations are interested in team players rather than individual contributors. During the Group Discussion, the panel essentially evaluates the candidate's potential to be a leader and also his/her ability to work in teams. Remember that organizations are typically on the look out for candidates who will inspire to lead and succeed and for that you need to be a good team player. Here is a sample list of skills assessed during a group discussion: Leadership skills: Ability to take leadership roles and ability to lead, inspire and carry the team along to help them achieve group's objectives.Example: To be able to initiate the group discussion, or to be able to guide the group especially when the discussion begins losing relevance or try to encourage all members to participate in the discussion. Communication skills: The participating candidates will be assessed in terms of clarity of thought, expression and aptness of language. One key aspect is listening. It indicates a willingness to accommodate others views. Example: To be able to use simple language and explain concepts clearly so that it is easily understood by all. You actually get negative marks for using esoteric jargons in an attempt to show-off your knowledge. Interpersonal skills:This is reflected in the ability of the individual to interact with other members of the group in a brief situation. Emotional maturity and balance promotes good interpersonal relationships. The person has to be more people centric and less self-centered. Listening skill is an important requisite. Example: To remain cool even when someone provokes you with a personal comment, ability to remain objective, ability to empathize, non-threatening and more of a team player. Persuasive skills: Ability to analyze and persuade others to see the problem from multiple perspectives without hurting the group members. Example: While appreciating someone else's point of view, you should be able to effectively communicate your view without overtly hurting the other person. Problem solving skills:Ability to come out with divergent and offbeat solutions and use one's own creativity.Example: While thinking of solutions, don't be afraid to think of novel solutions. This is a high- risk high-return strategy. Conceptualizing skills :The ability to grasp the situation, take it from the day to day mundane problem level and apply it to a macro level.Example: At the end of the discussion, you could probably summarize the findings in a few sentences that present the overall perspective. Group Discussion(GD) - Common Mistakes Wise men learn from others mistakes, while the less fortunate, from their own. Here's a list of the most common mistakes made during group discussions:
Emotional outburst : Simran was offended when one of the male participants in a group discussion made a statement on women generally being submissive while explaining his point of view. When Simran finally got an opportunity to speak, instead of focusing on the topic, she vented her anger by accusing the other candidate for being a male chauvinist and went on to defend women in general. What Simran essentially did was to Deviate from the subject Treat the discussion as a forum to air her own views. Lose objectivity and make personal attacks. Her behaviour would have been perceived as immature and de-motivating to the rest of the team. TIPS FOR PARTICIPATING IN GROUP DISCUSSION Group Discussion is relavely a new concept introduced by our bank to assess the potenal of the employee. Following potenal competencies shall be assessed by the group discussion : 1. Managerial Competencies - Planning, Organizing, Decision making, Risk taking, Delegaon & Control 2. Client Management - Customer Orientaon, Quality Consciousness Markeng & Profit orientaon 3. People Related - Leadership, Team Building and Communicaon Skills 4. Personal Competencies - Iniaves, Resilience (Self renewing capability) Organizaonal Sensivity HOW GROUP DISCUSSION IS CONDUCTED? 1. Each group consists of minimum 8-12 parcipants but it can go more than 20 also. 2. Parcipants taking part in group discussion are seated in a semi-circular seang arrangement. 3. There will be 4 observers (one Observer may be as Guest Observer) who will keenly observe and rate the parcipants on pre-idenfied parameters. 4. Group discussion will be held as below : A Topic is given with 8-10 aributes, it can be more than 20 parcipants which are to be priorized individually at the first instance; Then group has to discuss and priories and try to arrive at a consensus. Time allowed for this exercise is about 20-30 minutes. Parcipant's performance will be observed and recorded by the Observers Tips on Subject You should be well aware of the latest happenings around you, not only pertains to our Bank but also banking industry as a whole. To be in a better position, make sure that you have in-depth knowledge on the topic. Often, the GD topics are generic banking topics with contemporary flavours. There are topics which re-appear with minor variations. Be aware of such topics well in advance so that you have ample time to prepare for the same. The indicative topics are Stressed Assets, Strategies to augment profit, Alternate Delivery Channels, Digital Payments, Challenges before Public Sector Banks, Opportunities in Gen-Y Banking, Risk Management, HR issues in Banking, Life Cycle Product approach, Consolidation of Banks, Branch Profit Planning, etc., often appear as GD topics. Make sure you know these topics well and can come up with some unique, insightful points along with dates, stating facts. Subject knowledge is a pre-requisite while you are preparing for a group discussion because you will then have the power to steer the conversation to whichever direction you want to. If you can memorise some relevant data, it will be an added advantage. Indeed, initiation of discussion is an advantage and closing it too also adds brownie points. If you can grab the opportunity to close the discussion, then you should summarise it. If the group has not reached a conclusion try concluding it. Accomplishing in a group discussion is like driving a car and should aware when to apply brakes or accelerate depends on the conversation to turn onto your side

Managing Stress

MANAGING STRESS ::

Adult life seems to be full of fun and unlimited possibilities. You can go wherever you want, do whatever you want, and never think about consequences. But when you grow up, you understand that there is nothing fun about being an adult. You have thousands of responsibilities, hundreds of daily tasks to accomplish, and the consequences are the only thing you can think about. You may live in the state of permanent stress. You have no right for a mistake. You have no time for having rest. You can’t tell someone that you cannot handle your problems. You need to be strong, you need to work hard, and you need to find a solution to every problem that appears.

Stress in Modern Life

With every year, the level of stress increases. Unfortunately, no one is surprised today when a 30-years old person has a stroke. The situation becomes worse: even children suffer from stress. They have sleep disorders, problems with concentration and nutrition, and they do not even understand that the reason for this lies in the habits of their parents and surrounding society. It seems that for the next generation stress will be the next cancer.

Still, today we can handle the stress. It requires time, attention, and effort, but the results – strong mental and physical health – are totally worth it. There are several approaches to stress management. These approaches can be divided into two large groups: something that you can do to decrease stress level at the current moment and methods that you need to introduce into your life and make them your habits.

Change Your Life to Get Rid of Stress

Of course, you cannot eliminate stress from your life for good. For our bodies, a stressful situation is everything that makes us feel uncomfortable. Your stress management will be more effective if you build stamina and make your

body and mind strong. Thus, you can prevent the negative effects of stress.

Everyone will experience stress in different aspects of their lives; it may be at work, with their family, or with their health. However, whatever might be the cause of your stressful day, it creates the same effect on your body, mood, and even on other people.

Life is full of hassles, demands, and if people don’t meet expectations or deadlines, the tendency is that our mind will be exposed to chaotic thinking and tiredness. This is how stress come out that can generally invade and ruin the enjoyment of your life. For many people, stress is a normal part of life that usually appears in everyday situations. Stress isn’t always bad; however, dealing with stress is usually not good. Mild stress can help you deal with pressure and motivate you to do your best and finish your work before the deadline.

Stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened, upset, and anxious. It may seem that there’s nothing you can do about stress. However, difficulties in dealing with this emotion may result in risk and danger to your health, physically and mentally.

Anyone experiencing stressful situation may be at risk of losing control of their emotions, which sometimes could ruin your ability to make decisions rationally. How to know if the anxiety is too much in dealing with your stress? How important is it to gain a deeper understanding about stress and what are the necessary things to do when dealing with such emotion? Feelings such as worry, and anxiety are just some of the common results of stress. Being stressed is sometimes healthy in order for a person to be alert and act. However, there are certain points in human life, where people cannot manage dealing with their stress.

Stress management effectively starts with identifying the sources of stress in your life. At first, it may not be easy as you may tend to overlook your own stressful feelings and behaviour. However, providing a solution to a problem always starts with identifying the problem or cause. The best

remedy for stress is self-examination and taking significant actions that can definitely help you lessen your worries and fears. Examples include taking a break for a few minutes to practice some deep-breathing exercises, relaxation, and entertaining yourself like going for a walk or going shopping. These are just a few examples that can usually help people ease their stressful day. In addition, if you cannot remove the stress, remove yourself. If you are not getting along with your company, it is important to slip away and find a new sanctuary to work in.

There are several negative effects of stress on your health such as an upset stomach, recurring colds, headaches and insomnia. If you are having difficulty dealing with stress, it would also be best to seek professional help from a doctor or therapist.

TIPS FOR REDUCING THE STRESS

Below are a few tips on what we can do to reduce stress in our life.

1. Healthy Nutrition

We are what we eat. If your daily meals consist of fries and other fast food, you have severe problems with nutrition. A person needs to consume not only enough calories (fast food has too many of them, causing obesity) but also enough elements and vitamins. When you consume good food, your body receives enough energy to be productive all day long and build the important connections between your blood, cells, and the nervous system.

2. Regular sports

If you suffer from stress regularly, you need to change your daily activities. The best way to get rid of stress (and prevent it) is regular sports classes. It does not matter what type of class you choose, swimming, gym or yoga, you just need to make your body move. While moving, our endocrine system starts to produce hormones helping to lower the impact of stress. Besides, if you feel stressed right here and now, you

can also use sports as the way to manage stress.

3. Meditation

If you are looking for simple ways to fight stress, then regulating your breathing can help. Our breath is a natural and most important function of life and carries vital life energy. It is a known fact that if we stop breathing for long enough, then we die. Despite this fact, most of us take our breathing for granted and rarely stop to think about it. Find out how breathing properly can help to relieve symptoms of stress and calm and relax your mind.

When we are stressed, our body responds in preparation for "fight or flight" and we suffer various symptoms such as sweating, increased pulse rate, racing heart, and fast, shallow breathing. In earlier times this was necessary for our survival when hunting or protecting ourselves. However today it is usually only our perception of danger or negative thoughts that produce this reaction, so the body has few ways to deal with the effects.

Regular attacks of stress and anxiety start to turn our fast, shallow breathing into a habit. They may decrease our ability to breathe properly and could leave us with breathing difficulties such as asthma. Often in today's society, we do little aerobic exercise and therefore we rarely breathe deeply. Our breathing simply becomes shallower than it needs to be as a matter of habit.

Just as stress and other states of mind affect our breathing, the way that we breathe affects our state of mind. When we breathe, we are taking in oxygen through the lungs to the brain and the cells in the body. Shallow breathing can affect the amount of oxygen circulating in the body. This makes us feel sluggish. The way we breathe also affects the amount of energy in our bodies. When our breathing is irregular and erratic, we are likely to feel lacking in energy.

Of course, it is not just the body that is affected by the way that we breathe but the mind also. For centuries disciplines such as yoga and meditation have involved using the breath as part of their

techniques. Use of the breath is an important part of performing yoga postures. Breathing meditation is common to calm the mind as part of preparative practices for meditation. Breathing meditation consists of watching the breath as we breathe in and out whilst trying to ignore all other distractions to the best of our ability. Concentrating on the breath has long been known to quiet and calm the mind.

In the same way as used in meditation, breathing exercises can be used to fight stress and quiet the mind and body. These are great because they are simple and free, and you can do them anywhere. Simply concentrating on our breathing whilst drawing deeper, slower breaths can help us to relieve stress and relax our minds. Breathe deeply through your nose and feel your diaphragm move. Watch the breath coming in and going out. Try to ignore all other distractions.

When you breathe, allow yourself to enjoy the experience of being a living being. Mostly we forget to do this and move through life very unconsciously. When we can quiet our minds, we can find peace and receive insights and access to our subconscious. Only when we become conscious of how we breathe, can we start to correct this.

So, to fight stress and find more energy, try watching your breath to make sure you are breathing efficiently. Get into the habit of taking deeper breaths. Improve your breathing through breathing exercises and regular aerobic exercise. Breathing properly will help you to cope with stress and improve your well-being.

Ability to calm down your mind and keep your emotions under control is precious. Regular meditations help to find out methods to remain calm and preserve a clear mind in different life situations. Meditation is the habit that will change your life even more dramatically than quitting smoking or drinking alcohol. First of all, it will help you release your hidden potential. You will be able to find answers to the questions that have been bothering you for a long time. You will be able to understand what exactly you want. You will learn how to listen to yourself and how to use this knowledge in your further life.

4. Sleep at Night

Night sleep is a key element of your strategy to prevent negative effects of the stress. At night, our bodies produce the most important hormones that help us beat stress. If you sleep in the daytime, your body cannot sufficiently perform its functions. Besides, you need to sleep at least 6 hours to give yourself time to have a rest and relax.

5. Positive Thinking

Stress ruins our mental health. To prevent that, you need to teach your mind to be strong and believe in the best outcomes. Positive thinking is an easy and effective way to enhance your mental health and make it ready to beat any complication or challenge. If you feel that you can no longer take your emotions under control, give yourself a break. Try to get rid of all negative thoughts and start thinking about positive moments. Imagine that you are sitting on the shore of the ocean, observing the waves and listening to nature. Or remember your childhood when mom’s smile made you the happiest person in the world.

6. Be Pro-Active

Lazy people suffer from stress more frequently than those who have an active life. If you have something to do, you do not have time to make up problems and think about them. Each time you notice that stress level is rising, start doing something that requires effort and concentration from you. For some people, the best solution for stress is to work with their hands. Other people prefer to delve into studying or investigation. Try different methods to understand what works perfectly for you.

Another approach that will help you beat the stress is to learn something new. However, you need to be careful with this approach. First of all, the theme should be interesting, and

secondly, you should not get irritated when you cannot cope with some new tasks

7. Do What You Like

It has been noticed that students who admire writing do not suffer from writing an essay. They do it easily in comparison to the students who do not love what they do. If you notice that everything in your life creates additional stress, change what you do. If you admire writing but work as an accountant (and you actually hate your job), quit it and give a try to writing different types of thesis statements for a magazine. If you cannot quit the job, introduce your hobbies to your life and make them more important than the things you do not like at all. Of course, it is difficult to change your approach to life in a couple of days. But you need to work on it to get rid of the stress and make your life more comfortable.

Stress should not be your friend. It should not guide you through your life and spoil its best moments. You need to take your life under control and make it better. Develop a habit to fight against stress and find the ways to eliminate it from your life. These 7 tactics will help you choose the right way to beat this problem and enhance the quality of your life.