The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had put out a list of bank holidays for the month of August 2021. As per the RBI list, only 8 days of leave were given to the banks, however, lenders also had weekends to consider as part of the overall number of holidays.
This brought up the number of leaves for banks in the month of August to 15 days. With the month mid-way through, there are just 8 days left from that total list of 15 holidays. Three of those days are weekends off, while the other five are RBI mandated leaves. The weekend leaves include two Sundays coming up on August 22 and August 29 respectively. The third weekend leave is the Fourth Saturday of the month.
The holidays from the RBI list for this month, land under the classification of ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act’. The other classification for the RBI listing can also be ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act and Real Time Gross Settlement Holiday’ and ‘Banks’ Closing of Accounts’, but the RBI has not indicated that these other two classifications apply to the current list for the month of August.
It should be noted that these holidays on the RBI list are state-wise leaves, religious celebrations and festivals. They are state-based and not uniform in any way as they do not apply to all the states on the same date. However, there were is one day remaining on the list that is celebrated by a large majority of cities across a few states.
This day is August 30, which is Janmashtami (Shravan Vad-8)/Krishna Jayanthi. This will be celebrated in the city of Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Lucknow, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar and Gangtok. The other widely celebrated holiday was on August 19, which was Muharram (Ashoora). It was celebrated across 17 cities in India.
Another significant thing to take note of is that this week is packed with back-to-back holidays for the next four days. However, they are separated by geography and only a handful of cities and states will be celebrating them. For instance, August 20 is Muharram or First Onam and it will be celebrated in Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.
Then on August 21, the very next day, it is Thiruvonam, which is celebrated in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. August 22 is a Sunday and that means a uniform bank leave for all banks in India.
Finally, on August 23 Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi will be celebrating the holiday Sree Narayana Guru Jayanthi. Since these are compacted mostly in South India and only a few places at a time, it gives bank customers a good amount of breathing room to plan their next visit to the bank.
The last day on the list of holidays takes place on August 31, which is Sri Krishna Ashtami. This holiday will only be celebrated in Hyderabad and only lenders in that city will remain closed for the holiday.
Here is the full list of holidays for the month of August 2021, as per RBI mandate: (Counting from August 20 onwards)
1) August 20, 2021 – Muharram/First Onam (Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram)
2) August 21, 2021 – Thiruvonam (Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi)
3) August 22, 2021 – Sunday
4) August 23, 2021 – Sree Narayana Guru Jayanthi (Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi)
5) August 28, 2021 – Fourth Saturday
6) August 29, 2021 – Sunday
7) August 30, 2021 – Janmashtami (Shravan Vad-8)/Krishna Jayanthi (Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Lucknow, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar and Gangtok)
8) August 31, 2021 – Sri Krishna Ashtami (Hyderabad)
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