India's forex reserves were up by $4.84 billion to $702.78 billion for the week ended June 27, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the foreign exchange reserves had dropped by $1.01 billion to $697.93 billion.
Senior bankers anticipate discussions on issues related to technology, cyber security, and customer protection.
Stock markets snapped the four-day falling streak on Tuesday with the benchmark Sensex rebounding by 317 points on buying in auto and pharma shares amid a decline in retail inflation to a more than six-year low, nearing the RBI's comfort zone. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 317.45 points or 0.39 per cent to settle at 82,570.91. During the day, it jumped 490.16 points or 0.59 per cent to 82,743.62. The 50-share NSE Nifty edged higher by 113.50 points or 0.45 per cent to 25,195.80.
The cumulative rate hikes of 2.5 percentage points by the central bank since May 2022 negatively impacted headline inflation by 1.60 per cent, a paper by senior RBI staffers said on Monday. "Policy rate increases have anchored inflation expectations and modulated aggregate demand, generating disinflationary responses," the paper by Deputy Governor Michael Patra, Indranil Bhattacharyya, Joice John and Avnish Kumar, said.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has sought granular data from select non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) on their loan book growth. The details sought are on the outstanding product-wise portfolio and the annualised interest charged on them. The annualised interest slabs mentioned are as follows: less than 10 per cent, 10-20 per cent, 20-30 per cent, 30-40 per cent, 40-50 per cent, and above 50 per cent.
Ask rediffGURU and tax expert Mihir Tanna your income tax-related questions.
'India has the potential to grow at more than 7%, with the monetary policy providing a supportive hand.'
India's consumer price index (CPI)-based retail inflation rate is likely to have cooled further in June, thus remaining below the 4 per cent target of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a fifth consecutive month, giving the central bank wiggle room to focus on growth. Economists reckon that the decline is on account of easing prices in various categories of goods, especially food items, and a favourable base effect.
India's forex reserves jumped by $6.99 billion to $692.72 billion during the week ended May 23, the RBI said on Friday.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday issued a draft framework for alternative authentication mechanism for digital payments, wherein it has mandated that all digital payment transactions would have to be authenticated with an additional factor of authentication (AFA), except small value contactless card payments for up to Rs 5,000 at point of sale terminals, e-mandates for recurring transactions, and small value digital payments through offline mode, among others. Additionally, it has said that all digital payment transactions, other than card present transactions, have to ensure that one of the factors of authentication is dynamically created, i.e., the factor is generated after initiation of payment; is specific to the transaction; and cannot be reused.
The famous 'tareekh pe tareekh' dialogue from the Hindi movie Damini captures where we are now.
Wholesale price inflation (WPI) declined to a 14-month low of 0.39 per cent in May on easing prices of food articles and fuel, and experts said geopolitical tensions could push up prices.
RBI's interest rate decision, macroeconomic data announcements and global trends are the key factors that would dictate the momentum in the equity market this week, analysts said.
'Maintain a balanced approach with a preference for short-to medium-duration funds.'
The proposed reforms in goods and services tax (GST) announced by the government last week, coupled with the eighth pay commission dole-out, is likely to push consumption-driven stocks - such as air conditioners (ACs), select automobiles, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), retail, and counters of quick-service restaurants (QSRs) - into higher orbit over the next few months, believe analysts.
India's forex reserves dropped by $1.01 billion to $697.93 billion for the week ended June 20, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the reserves had jumped by $2.29 billion to $698.95 billion.
The Reserve Bank is unlikely to ease the benchmark policy rate during 2024 given the uncertainty over food inflation, State Bank of India (SBI) chairman C S Setty has said. The US Federal Reserve's first cut in interest rates in more than four years is expected soon, triggering central banks in other economies to follow suit. "On the rate front, a lot of central banks are taking independent calls.
Payouts to key management personnel in non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are under the banking regulator's scrutiny. Top industry officials said this is a follow-through on the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) circular of April 29, 2022, which asked NBFCs in the "middle" and "upper" layer of its four-tiered scale-based regulatory (SBR) framework to put in place a board-approved compensation policy.
The Reserve Bank on Wednesday imposed business restrictions on Edelweiss Group's lending and asset reconstruction arms on concerns over evergreening of loans. The central bank has asked ECL Finance Ltd (ECL) to cease and desist from undertaking any structured transactions in respect of its wholesale exposures, other than repayment and/or closure of accounts, an official statement said.
Among the 30 Sensex firms, Asian Paints, Infosys, JSW Steel, UltraTech Cement, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, HCL Technologies and Tata Steel were the biggest laggards. Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, ITC, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank were the gainers.
Why is the RBI harsh on Paytm Payments Bank? Why did it give Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank Ltd such a long rope?Often, it's a long investigation process, but the RBI doesn't discuss this openly since that can threaten financial sector stability, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Reserve Bank on Friday raised the inflation projection for current fiscal year to 4.8 per cent from 4.5 per cent with Governor Shaktikanta Das saying lingering food price pressures are likely to keep headline inflation elevated in the December quarter. Consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation increased sharply in September and October 2024 led by an unanticipated increase in food prices.
'The kind of reach it has with so many bank branches even in the remotest part of the country, it is one channel which will play a very important role in vision of insurance for all.'
S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday retained India's growth forecast at 6.8 per cent for the current fiscal and said it expects the RBI to start cutting interest rates in its October monetary policy review. In the economic outlook of Asia Pacific, S&P Global Ratings also retained its GDP growth forecast for the 2025-26 fiscal at 6.9 per cent and said solid growth in India will allow the Reserve Bank to focus on bringing inflation in line with its target.
A combination of factors, including heavy investments in US Treasury bonds and dollar sales at a healthy profit, facilitated the Indian central bank in transferring a record surplus of Rs 2.11 trillion to the government for 2023-24 (FY24). The RBI's dollar purchases increased in FY24, supported by robust capital inflows endorsing the economy's health.
The Indian services sector growth touched an 11 month high in July, supported by a pickup in new exports orders and sharp rise in overall sales, a monthly survey said on Tuesday. The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services PMI Business Activity Index was at 60.5 in July, little-changed from 60.4 in June, and the rate of expansion was the best seen since August 2024.
RBI Deputy Governor Swaminathan J has asked banks to follow KYC guidelines with both "precision and empathy", failing which regulatory actions will be taken against them by the central bank. Addressing a Conference of Directors of Private Sector Banks here on Monday, the Deputy Governor also expressed concern that in many cases, customer grievance mechanisms, including the Internal Ombudsman structure, are treated more as a formality than as a robust, effective resource.
'We found certain banks having lakhs of such accounts with apparently no valid reason.'
India's forex reserves jumped by $4.55 billion to $690.62 billion for the week ended May 9 on the back of a steep increase in gold assets, the RBI said on Friday.
Equity investors would track global market trends, inflation data and trading activity of foreign investors for further cues this week, analysts said. Moreover, progress of monsoon and developments related to trade talks would also be monitored by investors, experts noted.
Retail inflation declined to over six-year low of 2.1 per cent in June, nearing the RBI's comfort zone, on account of subdued prices of food items, including vegetables, driven by widespread monsoon.
India added nearly 4.7 crore jobs during 2023-24, taking the total number of employed people to 64.33 crore spread over 27 sectors covering the entire economy, according to Reserve Bank data. The number of employed people was 59.67 crore at the end of March 2023, said the RBI's update on 'Measuring Productivity at the Industry Level-The India KLEMS [Capital (K), Labour (L), Energy (E), Material (M) and Services (S)] Database'.
Bharti Airtel sees opportunity in raising tariff for data services as it feels that rich are paying less and poor are not required to pay anymore, a senior official of the company said. During the company's earnings call for the first quarter of the current fiscal, Bharti Airtel vice-chairman and MD Gopal Vittal said that the company has written to the government for a relief on adjusted gross revenue and has demanded that it should be given benefit at par with other telecom operator, without naming Vodafone Idea.
Infrastructure bonds, which were relied upon the most in 2024-25 (FY25) by commercial banks to raise funds through the domestic debt capital market amid lagging deposit growth, seem to have lost their sheen in FY26. So far in FY26, no bank has tapped the domestic debt capital market to raise funds via infra bonds, and the expectation is that the amount raised through this route will be significantly lower than that last year, unless credit demand picks up.
India's forex reserves dropped Rs 2.065 billion to Rs 686.064 billion for the week ended May 2, the RBI said on Friday.
'That way you're not hostage just to US sort of exports to India.'
The move is to align affordable housing finance flows to the increase in property costs and inflation, says Raghu Mohan.
Private sector ICICI Bank on Friday said its board has approved additional 2 per cent increase stake in its asset management arm ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company. The board of the bank on Friday approved purchase of up to 2 per cent additional shareholding in the ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company, ICICI Bank said in a regulatory filing.
In the month of May, the victim got a call from a person identifying himself as telecom department staffer Amit Kumar, who told her a SIM card had been bought with her personal details for use in criminal activities.
Retail inflation dipped to an over six-year low of 2.82 per cent in May due to subdued food prices, remaining below the RBI's median target of 4 per cent for the fourth consecutive month, according to government data released on Thursday. Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based retail inflation was 3.16 per cent in April and 4.8 per cent in May 2024.
