India s banking sector has been hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons. It started with the mounting problem of non-performing assets (NPAs) across banks; then came a revelation of systemic fraud in the second-largest state-owned bank; and most recently topping it all off are damning allegations of irregularities against the head of one of the largest private-sector banks.

All of these issues point towards a pandemic problem ailing the Indian banking sector which cannot be resolved with quick-fix solutions.
The government s response to the issue of bad loans has been to bail out the errant banks with taxpayer s money. A massive recapitalisation plan of Rs 1.35 trillion was announced last year bringing the total capital infusion into banks over the past decade to an astounding Rs 2.65 trillion. Clearly such hand-outs only amount to value destruction on a colossal scale and go nowhere close to resolving the underlying problem that gives rise to the very problem of bad lending practices.
Meanwhile the case of fraud at Punjab National Bank of Rs 110 billion which involved the connivance of at least 54 employees over a period of time is experiencing no headway either. The main pers " he said referring to the decision to disallow what would have been the tying goal for Iran in Wednesday s match.
At the same time Queiroz said that Spain were worthy World Cup champions in 2010 and he endorsed VAR as "good for the credibility of soccer."
Despite the loss Iran remain in the fight to advance from Group B. Spain and Portugal are tied for the lead with 4 points each followed by the Iranians with three.
"If you think of it like tennis we had one match point today and we will have another against Portugal. Everything is still open. We are still alive and still dreaming " Queiroz said.
"We showed that we were ready to suffer and ready to compete. I felt we deserved a better result " he said of Wednesday s contest. "There s no doubt Spain play wonderful stylish football but I thought we deserved more for the way we played."
"But congratulations to Fernando Hierro and Spain. We will learn a lot from this game " the Iran coach added.

--IANS kk/bg