PM Modi Proposes, Bank Disposes

With a heavy heart, I’m airing my grievances here. I, KS Kalyanasundaram, am a first-generation entrepreneur with proven past experience and track record of working with HMV, Times of India, MTV, Disney, ZEE, Sahara and B4U for more than 25 years. To launch my entrepreneur dream, I left my lucrative position to start a music channel, Whistle TV, which would have been India’s first dedicated Fully HD music channel.

Last year, I had applied and received a sanction for a loan from the Bank of India. I had to offer my own flat, which I got from my father as, collateral. Bank of India, as a professional bank, did all the due diligence, conducted internal TEV, took my interviews several times, and finally sanctioned the loan. Having got the sanction, I invested all my savings, to the tune of Rs 7 crores, into setting up of the channel. The channel has already gone on air (it can be downloaded at frequency 3725h2666 and viewed at http://www.whistletv.in) and we started incurring huge expenses on the project. As we had received license from the Ministry of I&B, we had to pay a hefty amount to uplink the channel. We had to do this as the bank said it would disburse the loan only after the license was obtained. 

However, when we approached the bank for disbursement with the license in hand, we were told that due to mismatch in bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio, we would have to wait till September 2015. When we next approached the bank, we were told that the loan disbursement would not be possible!!! And this time there was no reason offered!!!

This came as an absolute shocker to us. 

How can a bank approve of the loan, make the entrepreneur invest heavily in the venture, and then back off citing internal policies? This amounts to not only the killing of the business but also the spirit of entrepreneurship.

While our honorable Prime Minister Shri Modiji is promoting Make in India and Ease of Doing Business, the Government of India officials are being the biggest roadblock to this vision.

This is a typical instance of ground reality at the grassroots level that threatens to derail the Make in India vision of the PM, and an example of bureaucratic hurdle thrown in the way of an aspiring entrepreneur.

I have attached all the correspondence and documentation from the bank in this blog. I hope to bring to light the malpractices of a bank that is damaging not only to businesses but to the entrepreneurial spirit of the country.

Jai Hind

KS Kalyansundaram

CEO, of what-would-have-been Whistle Media Network

Following are the copies of the internal memo circulated by Bank of India apprising officials of the change in policy.

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And this is the copy of my letter to honourable Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley:

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