Income from distribution of third-party products such as insurance policies and mutual fund schemes is already under pressure because of the unfavourable economic climate.
Banks' net interest margins under pressure due to moderate income from advances.
Banks have come to realise that recession or no recession, education loans are a low-risk business.
Balachandran M, Director of the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection, has little time to catch his breath. He and his team have been supervising recruitment of nearly 100 public sector bank employees every day.
While the registration fee for CAT 2009, which was Rs 1,300 last year, will surely increase due to the high administrative and infrastructure costs because of the computerisation, it may still be less than Rs 2,000. CAT, say IIMs, will be a candidate-friendly test in terms of flexibility in the selection of test date, ease of registration, better physical environment and test experience, and enhanced security with biometric identification of candidates and video monitoring.
"We have signed an MoU with Cisco to make an investment in GIFT and help us evolve our technology platform. The American giant is likely to invest over $2 billion in the project," a top government official of GIFT said. Cisco is also expected to pick up some stake in the project. However, the details are still being worked and it will take about three-four months to finalise the deal, the official added.
The clauses on corporate debt restructuring (CDR) are being reworked in view of the huge foreign exchange exposure of several companies, which have already opted for restructuring debt or are on their way to seeking approval for one.
Canara Bank has put on hold its plan to sell non-performing assets with realisation value of around Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) after lukewarm response from asset reconstruction companies (ARCs).
The equations would take change completely in case a third front forms the government. Many experts feel that banking, insurance and healthcare will not be impacted whoever forms the government.
As part of wage settlement, new recruits will be asked to shift to the New Pension Scheme.
ICICI Bank, the country's largest private sector bank, has scaled down its overseas operations, especially in the United States and Sri Lanka. It has also recalled some employees from its international offices now that the businesses of fund-raising and merger and acquisitions have shrunk.
As part of its focus on developing startups across the world, Goldman Sachs is looking at training and development of around 29 select women entrepreneurs in India.
Asked if it is looking at the Maruti 800 and the Chevrolet Spark segment, Nigel E Wark, executive director, marketing, sales and service, Ford India, said: "Yes, we will be launching the small car in this segment broadly, but there are sub-segments and this is where we will differentiate ourselves. We will be competing in the largest volume segment. India and China are the two markets where small cars are in huge demand and we will be focusing on these countries."
Failed attempt to acquire stake in Kolhapur-based bank seen as trigger.
While the level of non-performing assets for banks is on the rise, despite the Reserve Bank of India's push for debt restructuring, cases referred to the corporate debt restructuring cell increased to 34 at the end of March 2009, as against 10 at the end of 2007-08. CDR, which was set up in 2002-03, is a mechanism for faster disposal of restructuring cases involving multiple lenders, though foreign banks are yet to join the platform.
RIL is aiming to revive its 350-odd outlets in Gujarat and Maharashtra by the end of April, followed by the rest of the country. The company may sell only these two products for some time. The company had closed all its 1,400-odd retail outlets through the country last year, after sales dropped drastically due to its inability to match the subsidised prices offered by state sector oil marketing companies.
Within 15 days of opening the registration process for Nano, its Rs 1 lakh car, Tata Motors has sold nearly 5,00,000 application forms, raking in Rs 15 crore (at Rs 300 each). Distributors associated with the Nano bookings said most of the forms were likely to translate into bookings.
Loans at a discount to the benchmark prime lending rates of banks are back with a majority of the fresh loans being disbursed at sub-PLR rates.
In a bid to increase efficiency, telecom major Vodafone Essar is set to relocate over 1,500 of its employees to Ahmedabad from all over the country.
With interest rates softening, banks are slowly re-pricing the cost of short-term credit extended to the corporate sector.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances