The recent spate of technical glitches in aircraft has prompted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue an order on July 18, making aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) with category B1/B2 licences the final authorities in certifying planes. This has put the spotlight on the availability of such personnel. According to the order, airlines were resorting to frequent one-off authorisation by the Category A certifying staff at transit stations, which is not in line with existing regulatory provisions.
RBL Bank is no Yes Bank. It's not fraught with fraud. It's a story of limitless ambition and greed for growth under a leader who doesn't want to give up, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
If the earnings in the first quarter of the current financial year are an indication, most banks, particularly those majority-owned by the government, have fared well, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Of the 2,562 customer complaints received between January 2020 and March 2021, a majority relate to illegal apps. At least two dozen suicide cases have been reported, perpetrated by the harassment by loan app operators, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The country's largest housing finance company HDFC Ltd will merge with the country's largest private sector lender HDFC Bank, according to a regulatory filing. The scheme of amalgamation will be subject to various regulatory approvals, including from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), HDFC Bank said in the filing on Monday.
Flipkart on Monday said it has entered into a commercial partnership with the Adani group to strengthen logistics and data centre capabilities of the Walmart-owned company and create about 2,500 direct jobs.
But there are challenges, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Investigation to be over by weekend, Mumbai police EOW to lodge FIR thereafter.
Employees across segments, including those involved in specialised jobs such as technology, compliance and risk management, have started leaving the bank fold in hordes, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Only when we are part of the same family, which will happen down the line, then, of course, we will give them (PMC depositors) all the assurance and the comfort.'
This will encompass the sale of Air India, a number of other privatisation initiatives, mergers, initial public offerings, the Centre's two exchange-traded funds, buybacks and offers-for-sale, and even monetisation of land assets.
Chinese stock markets suffered their biggest single-day drop since the global financial crisis.
Shaktikanta Das is a master of the finest balancing act who listens to all but takes his own decisions, discovers Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Historically, the RBI has tried to keep the crooks at bay by issuing a circular a day. What it needs is more onsite supervision. Merely checking high-frequency data with the help of technology is insufficient, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
If you are running a sweetmeat shop, will you manage a dairy for milk supply or buy milk from the market? Banks are running a dairy (which has its cost for processing milk), while NBFCs are buying milk from the market, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'It's a toss-up between a fire sale of equity or merger with a strong bank,' points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Tata supplies coffee beans to over 100-odd Starbucks outlets in India but is now also looking to become a supplier of coffee for the Seattle-based company globally
Unlike any other national asset, which is typically sold to the highest bidder, the profile of the bidder is the most important criterion for a licence to bank, and even for acquiring more than 5 per cent stake, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
A V Rajwade wonders if the Modi sarkar is pursuing price stability at the cost of potential social instability in both rural and urban India.
Not all public sector banks are back in the black, but their collective net profit for the year is Rs 32,346 crore against a Rs 9,013 crore loss in the previous year, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari puts them out of the ambit of Motor Vehicles Act; experts say some regulation, licensing and driver training will be necessary
The central government's highway award and construction target for the current fiscal is dominated by the Bharatmala scheme.
Flush with liquidity, banks are eager to lend. And, therein lies the problem, warns Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Your promise to protect bankers for their commercial decisions is a huge confidence booster, but how does one define a commercial decision? Are our investigative agencies well equipped to dissect lending decisions of bankers?
The account turned bad before Chaudhari took over as SBI chairman and the asset was sold to AARC following an open bidding process, months after Chaudhari retired, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Mired in corruption, politics and with a history of suicides by its hapless depositors, PMC Bank's revival is a challenge very different from Yes Bank and LVB, both for the regulator and the rescuer, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'We may bite the bullet and draw up plans for privatisation.' 'If that is done now, the sale of the government stake will fetch money; a delay will see erosion in whatever value is left in these banks,' says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
While a DFI will help banks derisk their loan portfolios, creation of a bad bank will clean up their balance sheets.
US e-commerce giant Amazon has written to the independent directors of Future Retail Limited (FRL), including Gagan Singh, Ravindra Dhariwal and Jacob Mathew, and its audit committee, providing data and alleging that there have been significant financial irregularities to the prejudice of public shareholders, banks, creditors, and third-party suppliers. Amazon has said this warrants a thorough and independent examination of all relevant facts and related-party transactions, including of past financial years, by an independent agency. Separately, Amazon has written to Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman Ajay Tyagi, seeking the withdrawal of the regulator's conditional approval granted to FRL related to the merger deal between the Future group and Reliance.
HCL's president & CEO Anant Gupta talked to Business Standard about the demand environment, its in the European market and Roshni Nadar's induction into the company's board of directors.
Nationalisation has served its purpose. It's time to move ahead, keeping majority ownership of the government in a few banks to serve the people, argues Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Banking is a business of trust.'
Mallya's Rajya Sabha declaration lists investments in racing, finance and investment firms.
Kirloskar Brothers Ltd (KBL), led by Sanjay Kirloskar, on Tuesday accused four firms under his brothers Atul and Rahul of trying to "usurp" its legacy of 130 years and trying to mislead the public, which has been refuted by the other side. As the family feud simmers, KBL in a letter to capital markets regulator Sebi claimed that recent press releases by Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd (KOEL), Kirloskar Industries Ltd (KIL), Kirloskar Pneumatic Company Ltd (KPCL) and Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd (KFIL) "have sought to usurp the legacy" of KBL. Also, they attempted to pass off the legacy and track record of KBL as that of their own, the letter said.
Store will directly employ 500-700 people, half of them women, and create 1,500 jobs indirectly
Barring stray references such as the 'dual control' of banks and shifting the goalposts during demonetisation, he is not in a fault-finding mode with the government, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Of the three major Budget announcements related to the banking sector, privatisation of PSBs is the most audacious, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
While taking gold out of the closet to borrow money is no longer taboo in Indian households, the sharp drop in gold prices is hitting the newest loan product on the banking turf hard, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Indeed, there were frauds, and the politician-banker-industrialist nexus played a role in the rise of NPAs, but governance issues in Indian banking are far more nuanced and complex, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Old timers in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) still remember how in early 2000 its overseas subsidiary, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), was on the verge of closure. Though OVL was set up in 1965, the only discovery the company had made till then was in Vietnam offshore, with more investment needed to monetise it. In 2001, when OVL started looking for new blocks abroad, the company's previous acquisition was 13 years old.
