Bank employees in India Wednesday started a two-day strike against proposed financial reforms in the banking industry, disrupting commercial activities across the country, according to dpa. Over a million employees of 24 state-owned banks, including the State Bank of India, and some private and foreign banks joined the strike, said C H Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA). With around 87,000 branches, public-sector banks control over 70 per cent of operations across Asia's third-largest economy. The strikers oppose a proposal to allow more private and foreign capital into banks, unrestricted voting rights, and licences to corporations to start new banks, AIBEA secretary Vishwas Utagi was quoted as saying by the broadcaster IANS. The bills, due for discussion by parliament Thursday and Friday, "are intended to hand over the Indian private sector banking to multinational banks and increasing presence of Indian corporate and foreign direct investment in public sector banks," Utagi said. But it was unclear whether the bills would be taken up Thursday as opposition lawmakers have stalled parliament since Tuesday in protests over a 33-billion dollar-loss in coal-mine allotments. "The strike is a big success," Venkatachalam said by phone from the southern city of Chennai. "In US, banks had collapsed because of lack of regulation. We cannot afford to deregulate and liberalize Indian banking system, because it is not in the public interest," he said. Several large private banks, including ICICI, HDFC and Axis, functioned normally, as the Indian Banks' Association denied that the strike would impact customers. Reforms in the retail, banking and insurance sectors have been held up in India due to opposition from political parties and left-wing workers' unions.
