Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Indian economy is on a roll and there was never a better time for taking loans. But it seems that the Muslim community has missed the great gold rush.
For instance, Delhi's New Friends Colony has branches of a number of private sector banks, public sector banks, nationalised banks and international banks. Right across New Friends Colony is Zakin Nagar, a Muslim ghetto.
Despite the fact that the area has a larger population living there, all it has is a single bank. Perhaps these are the invisible borders that the Sachar Committee has mapped out in its report.
The Sachar Committee that has now submitted its report to the Prime Minister, claims less than four per cent Muslims have access to subsidised loans. It says banks don't show transparency in such matters.
"There is no one to interrogate the banks, Muslims suffer from credit bias," says T K Oommen, a member of Sachar Committee.
But business analysts deny any foul play. "The only God that the probably bankers worship is money. I really don't think that religion plays a part in the bank's credit policy," says Harsh Rungta of Apnaloan.com.
Experts explain why giving more credit to the cash-strapped Muslim under-class makes business sense. "Benefit of focussing or directing credit to particular groups that have been denied is much greater than just increasing credit to a group that has been getting it all along," says economist Jayati Ghosh.
"Actually having to channelise credit to deprived groups like Muslims will have very good effects on the economy," she adds.
Sachar Panel argues that the data should be out in the open. "Banks are simply asked to provide data who are your borrowers and where do they live, it is a matter of information. And the possibility of instituting it and the instrument of collecting this simple information itself will be a leap forward," says T K Oommen, a member of Sachar Committee.
But corporate sector is not forthcoming. "When banks part with that data, there is a lot of commercial value to that data. You are really letting out whom you are lending money to and what kind of cases you take. People are spending millions of dollars in generating their credit scoring mechanisms," says Harsh Rungta, Apnaloan.com.
While there is demand for regulation of such loan disbursal, the reformist Prime Minister will think twice before doing that. As an economist, he also knows well the meaning of equitable development better than anyones else.
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