Public sector banks have to be very fast with public dealing: Parliamentary committee

Citing increased workload, a parliamentary committee has said public sector banks have to be very fast with public dealing besides being absolutely updated on the latest technology.

In its latest report, the panel also said the pattern of recruitment examination needs to be changed from time to time taking into account the nature of the work of the bankers so that accuracy and speed of the prospective candidates are properly evaluated.

"The philosophy of speed and accuracy required by bankers are changing from time to time. Around 10 years back, the workload and the nature of work perhaps did not need any speed or accuracy."

"But today, speed and accuracy play a very important role owing to the hundreds of central and state schemes being executed by the bankers and the nature of pro-poor schemes launched by the government," the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice has said.

The Committee emphasised that because of the technology being used nowadays, whether it is e-banking or online banking, 'public sector banks have to cater to large number of customers including the Jan-Dhan Yojana account holders and hence bankers have to be very fast with public dealing and also absolutely updated on the latest technology'.

"They should not face any kind of glitches and slow down in the process of service delivery," said the panel's 131st report on the 'Review of Functioning of Recruitment Organisations of Government of India'.

It cited Pilot Aptitude Battery Test (PABT) -- conducted exclusively to measure the aptitude of a particular person, whether he will fit in the mission or the job -- and sought to know whether any such examination is being conducted or contemplated by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

"The Committee firmly believes that as on today, neither the speed and accuracy nor the service is improving at large. So, the Committee wants to know whether there is any such special examination, (like Pilot Aptitude Battery Test), say banker aptitude battery test, being conducted or contemplated by IBPS to test the speed and accuracy of the bankers being recruited," the report said.

It further observed that barring a few recruiting organisations in India, in most of the organisations, whatsoever be the nature of the job, the recruitment pattern and the question pattern are almost the same.

The panel, headed by BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi, said it is keen to know how the syllabus is being designed and the guidelines for the examination being conducted to cater to the current changing scenario and keeping pace with it.

'The Committee is of the view that the pattern of the examination needs to be changed from time to time taking into account the nature of work of the bankers so that accuracy and speed of the prospective candidates is properly evaluated. The Committee further recommends revamping the syllabus to meet the changing demands in the banking sector that have emerged due to wide use of technology in the field,' it added.

The panel also said there should be some mechanism for refunding the fees for those who have not appeared, 'as majority of the students who are appearing for these exams are very poor people'.

'A mechanism by which money could be refunded to such candidates who could not appear and majorly belonging to a very poor background may be explored,' it said.

The Committee advocated examining in detail 'an assessment of the cost for an applicant to reach the examination centre from his house and pay the fee', 'the strike rate for a candidate to get a job' and 'an assessment of the cost of an unemployed person to only apply and not get the job'.

"The Committee notes that on an average approximately 95 per cent of the candidates who apply are not able to get selected and left without a job. However, everyone is being charged and mostly they are unemployed. Hence, the Committee recommends that it would be fair and can be explored that the state or the central government bear part of that cost so that it does not burden the unemployed youth," the report said.

Noting that not more than one lakh students or examinees can appear at one go, it said the IBPS needs to take steps to increase the number of students who can appear at one go for the examination.

"It means IBPS will have to increase the number of the centres. As on today, the maximum number is one lakh or one lakh twenty thousand. So, they need to work out on the modalities on how to execute this computer-based exam so that the number of candidates who appear in the exams can be increased at one go," the report said.