Sale of 60.72% of India's IDBI Bank Sparks Strike: Two-Day Walkout Ends as Unions Demand Halt and Parliamentary Scrutiny
New Delhi — A two-day nationwide strike by employees of India's IDBI Bank ended on November 3. The walkout, called by the United Forum of IDBI Officers and Employees, protested the Indian government's decision to sell a 60.72 percent stake in the bank to a subsidiary of Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings. The unions say the deal undervalues the bank and are demanding that the sale be halted, the valuation methodology disclosed, and the process investigated by a joint parliamentary committee. The forum's core committee is to meet on November 10 to decide its next steps, which could include seeking the support of the broader United Forum of Bank Unions and widening the agitation.
The transaction was approved on October 14 by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs: the government's 30.48 percent stake and the 30.24 percent held by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), together 60.72 percent, will be sold to Fairfax's 10955230 Canada Inc. for about 52,878 crore rupees (about US$5.5 billion), in what is seen as the largest foreign investment in an Indian bank to date. The government and LIC will retain a combined stake of about 34 percent. The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions said on November 1 that it fully supported the strike and hunger strike, demanding an immediate suspension of the disinvestment process, an independent time-bound investigation and parliamentary scrutiny. Congress party spokesman Jairam Ramesh called the transaction a scam and demanded it be stopped.
Arunish Chawla, secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), said on October 24 that the share purchase agreement explicitly protects existing employees' service conditions and pension commitments. The deal is expected to close by the end of the current fiscal year, subject to regulatory clearances including from the Reserve Bank of India.
Source: Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, India
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：印度 IDBI 银行一家营业网点（资料照片）。照片 CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: An IDBI Bank branch in India (file photo). CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
