Privatization of the banking sector, which is dominated by state-run behemoths with hundreds of thousands of employees, is politically risky because it could put jobs at risk but Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration aims to make a start with second-tier banks.
As an initiative, the Government chose mid-range banks because it would be hard to control the negative response from people and unions if it tries to sell the banks like State Bank of India (SBI). Apart from that, the govt needs SBI in-order to make it's schemes reach village level.
It seems that the government hopes to reduce trade union opposition by selling off banks with fewer employees. As of now around 50 thousand people have been working in Bank of India, 33 thousand in Central Bank of India, 26 in Indian Overseas Bank and 13 thousand in Bank of Maharashtra.
Experts also say that the government may take steps to privatize more banks in the future based on the reaction of the people on the sale of these 2medium-sized banks.