Today was the second day of a 2 day strike by 1 million bank workers in India. The strikers are protesting against a genuinely positive move by the Indian Government - to de-regulate and allow more private capital into the banking sector. Most of the strikers were of course from state owned banks - 70% of the banking sector is state owned. This compares to 20% in Central Europe (still remarkably high) and 15% in Latin America.
Despite a huge loss to the economy (estimated to be 300bn Rupees) things seemed to carry on mostly as normal - just a couple of queues at bank machines. Generally, a strike by vested interests against reform, means the government must be doing something right. Lets hope the government sticks to its guns - a re-invigorated private banking sector could be a timely boon.
Despite a huge loss to the economy (estimated to be 300bn Rupees) things seemed to carry on mostly as normal - just a couple of queues at bank machines. Generally, a strike by vested interests against reform, means the government must be doing something right. Lets hope the government sticks to its guns - a re-invigorated private banking sector could be a timely boon.
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