RBI Governor D Subbarao explains the rationale for the moves announced in the second quarter review of the monetary policy in an interview with Sidhartha. Excerpts:
According to sources close to the development, finance secretary Ashok Chawla, who is driving the process, is working on a concept note to provide the framework for consolidation.
The government is set to increase its stake in Bank of Baroda (BoB), Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and Dena Bank.
The move is aimed at improving margins.
In addition, bankers also told Business Standard that they did not expect the central bank to hike policy rates or the cash reserve ratio in the third quarter review scheduled for October 27 as inflation was not rising fast though inflationary expectations were there.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India is now planning to enable investors to buy and sell mutual fund units through stock exchanges. Fund houses will also be allowed to sell new fund offers (NFOs) through exchanges, helping them to save on distribution costs.
Punjab & Sind Bank plans to offer 5% each to top institutions
The only thing that's clear is the October 15 deadline for the end of free third-party ATM use.
This is in addition to the $3 billion (around Rs 15,000 crore) infrastructure fund being set up in association with the Macquarie group and International Finance Corporation. Though SBI would be a late entrant to the private equity space, Bhatt was confident that it would not be a deterrent.
The government and financial sector regulators have prevailed on Insurance Australia Group (IAG) to route its investment in a general insurance venture with State Bank of India through Singapore, instead of the original proposal to bring the money through a Mauritian subsidiary.
One indication of this was the fact that many large bond buyers stayed away from the Rs 12,000 crore auction conducted on August 7.
The Mahindra Holidays initial public offer --the third public float in the current year and the single largest issue over the last 12 months--was subscribed 11 times and four companies raised an estimated Rs 4,000 crore yesterday through QIPs. This came after realtor Unitech's announcement on Friday that it has raised over Rs 2,700 crore via a QIP at Rs 81 a share.
CitiFinancial, Citibank India's non-banking finance arm, has reduced its asset book by one-third and its branch network by a quarter of the year-ago level as part of a restructuring exercise, Citi CEO for South Asia Mark T Robinson told Business Standard.
Sources close to the development said the finance ministry was yet to receive a formal proposal to this effect from the bank, though SBI chairman OP Bhatt had recently said the lender had sought government permission to raise Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 bn).
OECD has identified at least four tax jurisdictions -- Jamaica, Qatar, Botswana and Ghana - whose tax information system would be studied to find out if they are emerging as the new tax havens following the crackdown on the existing ones. A unique tax identification number would be akin to a global permanent account number for Indian taxpayers which could remain the same across jurisdictions.
As part of wage settlement, new recruits will be asked to shift to the New Pension Scheme.
Though the overall environment seems to be improving, Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh tells Business Standard that the company is opting to be cautious.
The government has reopened the case for convergence between the capital market and commodity futures regulator, a move that has attracted opposition from the Forward Markets Commission, which regulates the commodities futures business.
Fund managers queued up to grab a pie of the new pension scheme that opens for subscription on May 1. But even before the scheme is launched, they are complaining of it being a loss-making business with the investment management fee fixed at 0.009 per cent.
In an interview with Business Standard's Shyamal Majumdar and Sidhartha, Kochhar says she is going to focus on the immediate challenge of correcting the cost structure of the country's second largest bank.
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