The reserves rose to $501.70 billion helped by a whopping rise in foreign currency assets, the latest data from the Reserve Bank of India.
'The nominal GDP growth assumption for FY25 may be revised upwards on higher growth expectations.'
With the prediction of an above normal monsoon in 2024, the government is expecting food prices to come down, the finance ministry's monthly economic report for March has said. The report, released on Thursday, said robust foreign inflows and comfortable trade deficits were expected to keep the rupee within a comfortable range. "Further easing of food prices is on the anvil as IMD (India Meteorological Department) has predicted above-normal rainfall during the monsoon season, which is likely to lead to higher production, assuming good spatial and temporal distribution of the rainfall," the monthly report, released by the Department of Economic Affairs, said.
The Union government's finances witnessed significant improvement in August after a stressful first four months of the current fiscal year. India's gross tax revenue, comprising both direct and indirect taxes, for the first five months of 2023-24 surged 16.5 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 11.8 trillion. During the April-July period, gross tax revenue increased by a mere 2.8 per cent compared to the Budget Estimate of 12.1 per cent growth for FY24.
Issues related to the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) and bilateral investment treaty between India and the UK are expected to figure during the three-day visit of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to London from April 8-10, official sources said. The minister will attend a host of meetings, including the India-United Kingdom Economic and Financial Dialogue, in London.
In order to boost its deposit base, State Bank of India (SBI) is focusing on various segments, including JanDhan account holders, trusts, societies, and the segment below the affluent class but above the normal account holders. According to Ashwini Tewari , managing director, SBI, the bank is focusing on three broad segments. One is wealth banking, where the bank is focusing on individuals who perhaps do not qualify for private banking but are above regular accounts and require individual attention.
This is not her first stint in North Block or in leading a major economic ministry. She started Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first term as minister of state for finance, was made the commerce minister, and then became the defence minister.
The disbursement of the second tranche comes on a day when the International Monetary Fund is holding virtual discussions on Pakistan's upcoming budget, as the visit of its mission to Islamabad was delayed due to security concerns in the region.
The finance minister continues to be backed by the same policy team in charting out the broad strategy as in the few earlier Budgets.
'The global situation is not very good.'
The idea is to save customers the inconvenience of opening and closing bank accounts or keeping multiple accounts if they have to shift to a new location or find their bank's services unsatisfactory.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) added another 102 metric tonnes to the domestically held gold in the April-September period, as per a disclosure made on Tuesday. The overall quantity of the precious metal stored in local safes stood at 510.46 metric tonnes as of September 30, which was up from over 408 metric tonnes as on March 31, 2024. The central bank said it added another 32 metric tonnes of gold reserves in the six-month period to take the overall tonnage to 854.73 metric tonnes, as per the half yearly report on management of foreign exchange reserves.
A proposal discussed by the RBI brass with key finance ministry functionaries in Delhi last week has favoured merger of large public sector banks with small state-run entities and private players, sources close to the development told Business Standard. It has also identified the potential partners for a merger based on the RBI's inspection report for the last two-three years, they added.
The CBI, in its FIR, alleged that Mayaram, the UK-based company De La Rue International Ltd and unidentified officials of the finance ministry and RBI hatched a criminal conspiracy to extend undue favour to the firm.
Structural reforms, pro-people programmes and employment opportunities helped the economy get new vigour, the finance minister said. After contracting by 5.8 per cent in 2020-21, the economy recorded a growth of 9.1 per cent in 2021-22.
The panel also recommended unified Financial Redress Agency under Finance Ministry for customer grievances.
The government on Tuesday appointed three external members -- Ram Singh, Saugata Bhattacharya and Nagesh Kumar -- to the RBI's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee for four years. The central government has reconstituted the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of RBI, the finance ministry said in a statement. Ram Singh is the director of the Delhi School of Economics, Saugata Bhattacharya is an economist, and Nagesh Kumar is the director and Chief Executive, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development, New Delhi.
The finance ministry expects a broad-based moderation in inflationary pressures on the back of an anticipated reduction in food prices as a result of the uptick in summer sowing. The retail inflation rate remained stubbornly clung to the 5 per cent mark in seven of the past eight months. "Core inflation is trending downwards, indicating a broad-based moderation in price pressures... Driven by strong domestic growth and benign global commodity prices, core inflation is declining continuously.
Seek easing of asset classification guidelines for better credit flow.
The proposal is being examined by the finance ministry in the run-up to Budget 2008-09. The banks have told Finance Minister P Chidambaram that there is a considerable divergence between the provisions made according to the RBI guidelines and the deductions allowed by the Income Tax Act.
In FY24 alone, 1.34 million fraud cases were reported, amounting to losses of Rs 1,087 crore.
A day after his appointment as the 26th governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), outgoing Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra on Tuesday said one must understand the economic landscape and do what was best for the economy. "Let me first go, join, understand the turf ... Here it is a different role," Malhotra said, speaking to reporters in front of North Block.
Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao on Tuesday said the central bank needed more powers before it could firm up the final guidelines on new bank licences.
With the Indian Premier League (IPL) story getting murkier, investigative agencies have cast their net wide to include banks. The idea is to dig out information about their financial exposure to the 10 IPL franchisees.
Prospects of a bumper kharif harvest are expected to lower food inflation in the coming months, making the country's inflation outlook benign, the Union Ministry of Finance (FinMin) said in its monthly economic report for October released on Monday.
Finance ministry asks bank, insurance & market regulators to issue notifications
RBI had last week announced a 0.5 per cent increase in cash reserve ratio to 5.5 per cent in two phases to absorb excess liquidity from the economy and check rising prices.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance's meeting comes against the backdrop of CBI probing the Saradha scam in which thousands of crores or rupees of gullible investors were allegedly swindled.
FinMin advice to include brokers & realty firms, debate over entry of industrial houses slow the process.
The government does not seem keen on issuing fresh gold bonds given the overall cost and rising gold prices.
'It has also outlived its initial purpose of reducing physical gold imports.'
The draft regulations on compensation of private banks, based on sound risk management and productivity linked principles, comes within days of the US Congress passing a major financial reform bill to discipline firms on Wall Street.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, who will present his maiden policy on September 20, held discussions on Tuesday with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the macro-economic situation.
Writes to govt for legal amendment, proposes committee that'll consult other sector regulators.
A high-level panel led by former RBI governor Bimal Jalan, set up to decide the appropriate capital reserves that the central bank should maintain, on Wednesday finalised its report.
Currently, banks are closed every second and fourth Saturday of a month. Why shouldn't they be shut every Saturday? When most customers carry their banks in their pocket (the app on the mobile phone), there is no need to keep banks open on Saturdays, argues Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The US Trade Representative noted that India's average applied tariff rate stood at 17% per cent, the highest of any major world economy.
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