The two-day nationwide strike of the public sector banks has been called off following an agreement between the banks and unions to discuss their demands. Chairman of the Indian Banks Association (IBA), M B N Rao, said that the IBA and United Forum for Bank Unions have agreed to hold discussions on the union demands.
Rao said a formal agreement to hold discussion between the two sides would be signed today and that at the discussions, the unions have agreed not to carry out their strike today and tomorrow. He also added that the detailed schedule for talks would be drawn on March 3.
According to the bank union sources, an MoU is likely to be signed between the IBA and the United Forum of Bank Unions, which had called for the strike, later today in Mumbai on various demands of employees.
The unions had last week threatened to call for a strike in the wake of merger between PSU banks. The unions were also demanding an early settlement of wage revision, second option for employees to go for pension scheme and compassionate appointment.
Earlier, a conciliatory meeting called by Chief Labour Commissioner, S K Mukopadhyay, on Friday and another by the IBA on Saturday had failed. (PTI)
The Reserve Bank of India reposed confidence in the Indian growth story by retaining its GDP growth forecast at 8.5 percent during fiscal 2007-08 in the mid-term review of the monetary policy presented here Tuesday. The central bank has kept all key interest rates unchanged.
The central bank said India's gross domestic product (GDP) would continue to grow at 8.5 percent for the rest of the financial year provided there was no further escalation in international crude oil prices and barring domestic or external shocks.
RBI placed real GDP growth during the first quarter of 2007-08 at 9.3 percent, compared to 9.6 percent in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
The year-on-year (YoY) wholesale price index inflation eased from its peak of 6.4 percent on April 7, 2006 to 3.1 percent by Oct 13, 2007, it said.
It however showed concern over the Y-o-Y CPI inflation for industrial workers, which showed a sharp increase to 7.3 percent in Aug 2007, compared to 6.3 percent a year ago.
RBI reaffirmed its intention to condition inflation expectations in the range of 4-4.5 percent, with a medium-term objective of keeping it at around three percent.
RBI governor Y. Venugopal Reddy has left all the key bank rates unchanged.
The bank rate at six percent, repo rate at 7.75 percent and reverse repo rate at six percent will all remain the same. The cash reserve ratio (CRR) has however been hiked by 50 basis points to 7.5 percent with effect from Nov 10.
Indo-Asian News Service