To ease pressure due to the coronavirus lockdown, corporate have asked banks and the government for a six-month liquidity line, so that they can pay off their suppliers and employees.
The volume in the anonymous trading platform, NDS-OM, was Rs 7,210 crore - less than half the normal volume, but not as bad as the start of the day indicated.
Officials said there had been no official word or indication from the top yet. The expectation from officials is to do what they can, but it is understood that all fiscal and budgetary targets don't matter anymore.
The idea is to keep the RBI's information technology (IT) infrastructure in top shape to run the payments and settlement system uninterrupted 24x7, and run the full gamut of RBI functions from the secured data centres, as nearly 14,000 RBI staffers, except the senior-most management, work from home.
While the meetings on Friday were preliminary discussions, it is learnt that sectors like tourism; hospitality; aviation; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); and livestock have sought deferring loan repayments and temporary tax holidays in specific cases to help them tide over the steep fall in economic activity.
''Even without major reforms, with a business as usual scenario, and with current inflation trends, we should be clocking around 11 to 12 per cent nominal growth.' 'That is not happening and is a source of worry,' Rathin Roy tells Arup Roychoudhury.
To address the supply crunch, CII has suggested leveraging the existing excess capacity in the Indian industry; rolling back import duty hike to look for alternative sources of imports; expanding credit to manufacturing units with quick loan sanctions, and one-time emergency waiver of non-performing asset regulations for three months.
While the FPI limit on most bond issues would not be raised above 6 per cent, there would be some in which there would be no limits, reports Arup Roychoudhury.
Minutes of the MPC meeting show Das felt economy needs more monetary stimulus as inflation outlook remains uncertain.
'If you do quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, someone earning Rs 10 lakh can get a benefit of anywhere between Rs 35,000 and Rs 45,000, even if s/he is availing exemptions.' 'A large proportion of people do not avail full exemptions as they don't have money to invest in those schemes.'
'There are some encouraging signs.' 'Notice that we have not said 7%-plus, we are keeping it at 6% to 6.5%.'
The panel may include or seek inputs from former RBI Governor Urjit Patel, former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian, Sajjid Chinoy of the PM-EAC, Rathin Roy, among others.
Nominating Das, the Banker magazine, which announced the award, said India's banks have faced a series of challenges, from non-performing loans to issues around fraud. Faced with these challenges, Shaktikanta Das has taken steps to bring banking in India up to standard via a restrained approach to governance.
This is due to the newly formed Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, which will get funds from the Centre's share, which means devolution will be for 28 states compared to 29 earlier.
Any reduction in devolution could aggravate the strained relations between the Centre and some opposition-ruled states on a number of issues, including CAA.
Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan are the other three states to pass a resolution opposing the contentious legislation, reports Archis Mohan.
Processes are at an advanced stage for a number of assets of the Centre and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to be monetised. The assets include office space, apartments, factories, land, power transmission assets, sports stadia, gas pipelines, and telecom assets.
Sources said much has been done to ease the tax burden of the middle classes in the last five years, and that such a measure affects only a limited segment of people when the focus should be to put money in rural areas. Archis Mohan reports.
Such minutes will be available within two weeks from the date of its confirmation in the next meeting of the central board and on being signed by the chairman in the same meeting, the RBI said in a statement on its website.
Oil sank to the lowest level in a month after shedding all of its gains from the US-Iran clash as traders waited to see whether any further hostilities will disrupt exports from the East Asia.