a positive development in the sense that there is a stable government which is committed to brexit. earlier, the debate in the public space in the united kingdom ( uk ) was oscillating between brexit and no brexit. fortunately, as it would appear, there is some element of certainty coming in there. 12. to highlight the kind of uncertain times that we are living in, i would like to mention one more development. when the saudi oil drone strikes happened about a few months ago, the oil markets went into great suspense immediately. in an interview within two / three days of the drone strikes, i was asked a question by your channel, et now, and i had said that i will wait for at least two weeks to see saudi arabia ’ s revival plan. but fortunately, within no time, the saudi authorities were able to put together a revival plan and the shock was rendered temporary. while the times are uncertain, it is good that efforts are being put in to reduce the element of uncertainty. 13. against this backdrop, i had observed in my intervention at the introductory session of the imf ’ s international monetary and financial committee ( imfc ) meeting in october 2019 that we ( all member countries ) need to act now and together to prevent the slowdown from becoming entrenched. 14. global growth is widely talked about in india because it influences domestic growth as well. i do not intend to imply that the slowdown that we are experiencing in the country is entirely due to global factors, but they do have an impact. for emerging market economies such as india, quick revival of growth is very important – considering their contribution to global growth – and there is, therefore, a need for coordinated and timely action by all countries. this is a point which needs to be driven home very strongly. 15. in 2008, when the global financial crisis ( gfc ) happened, multilateralism was at the forefront of global discourse. ten years later, today, when there is a global slowdown, it is no more the dominant theme – bilateralism has overtaken the multilateral sentiment. all the g - 20 countries, led by the usa, had come together post gfc and worked out a global plan of action to revive growth. we do not see that kind of global action in the current scenario. i only hope 2 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches that global growth does not suffer from hysteresis. that is, delayed action by

’ s total debt is at risk, which is among the highest in the emerging economies while india ’ s banks have only 7. 9 per cent loss absorbing buffer, which is among the lowest. while these numbers might need an independent validation, regardless of that, it underscores the relative riskiness of the asset portfolio of the indian banks. as you all know, rbi has taken various steps to improve the system ’ s ability to deal with corporate and financial institution distress. this includes issuance of guidelines on “ early recognition of financial distress, prompt steps for resolution and fair recovery for lenders : framework for revitalising distressed assets in the economy, detailed guidelines on formation of joint lenders ’ forum ( jlf ), corrective action plan ( cap ), ‘ refinancing of project loans ’, ‘ sale of npas by banks ’ and other regulatory measures, which emphasized the need for early recognition of financial distress and for taking prompt steps for rectification, restructuring or recovery, thereby ensuring that interests of lenders and investors are protected. various reports that i get suggest that the implementation of jlf framework needs further improvement on the ground level. we have received representations from bigger lenders about non - cooperation from a few lenders. on the other hand, smaller lenders have voiced their concerns about being arm twisted by bigger lenders. unless, there is proper coordination between the interested parties, all the revival efforts are likely to fall flat. rbi had given a road map for ending the regulatory forbearance on asset classification of restructured accounts long back and accordingly, the forbearance has come to an end on march 31, 2015. there has been a lot of clamor from all quarters for extending this forbearance. our stand on this issue has been absolutely clear. i wish to highlight that ‘ restructuring ’ per se is not necessarily a forbidden word. it is a legitimate financial activity practiced the world over to help the borrowers tide over short term problems and to preserve economic value in the system. i don ’ t know why restructuring a loan which is under short term stress should not be done. what we are saying is that, the banks must acknowledge the problem, admit that the account is facing stress as of now, but is expected to recover in future. hence, make a small provision and reverse it when the account becomes satisfactory and starts paying. staying in denial mode does not help anyone especially in an interconnected world where regulation making