State debt is rising because revenues are disappointingly weak. Ten states have debt ratios exceeding 30 per cent. In 2023-2024, states were borrowing simply to meet day-to-day expenses, points out Debashis Basu.
State Bank of India has 18,000 pending cases and Bank of Baroda has around 1,000 cases.
Opening up the corner office is fine, but will the government be able to attract talent without giving a market-rate salary?, asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Participatory notes are instruments through which foreign investors trade in the country's equity and debt markets.
"Cash is still quite high in the system. There is also stocking of Rs 2,000 notes in evidence. The expansion of digital payments is taking place all over the world. It is happening in India as well. The pace is much slower," S C Garg, who took VRS from government service after he was abruptly shifted out of the finance ministry, said in a note.
The government on Wednesday put out the draft of a new policy that projects the country's power sector will need Rs 50 trillion in investments by 2032 and Rs 200 trillion by 2047, proposing ambitious reforms in generation, transmission and distribution.
Payments banks have urged the Union finance ministry to increase their deposit limit for each account to Rs 5 lakh, according to a source who participated in a meeting, chaired by the Department of Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju, in New Delhi. At present, they can accept deposits of up to Rs 2 lakh.
Yes, the entry of private bankers, particularly with global experience will add value to PSBs, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The government has decided to discontinue the Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) starting from Wednesday in view of the evolving market conditions, the finance ministry said. However, the banks may continue their short term gold deposit schemes (1-3 years), the ministry said in the statement on Tuesday. Till November 2024, approximately 31,164 kilograms of gold have been mobilised under GMS.
The RBI added roughly 3 tonnes in 2025, taking its gold reserves to 879 tonnes as of January 31, 2025.
Three laws passed in Parliament could boost central revenues, reshape GST cess flows, shift MGNREGA costs to states and create new budget headroom ahead of the 2026-2027 Union Budget, points out A K Bhattacharya.
The Indian government has appointed Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey as the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Pandey, a 1987-batch IAS officer, will replace Madhabi Puri Buch, whose three-year tenure ends on February 28. Pandey's appointment comes at a time when the markets are experiencing bear pressure due to withdrawals by foreign institutional investors (FIIs). Pandey has extensive experience in the finance ministry, having served as the longest-serving secretary in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE). He also played a key role in the framing of the 2025-26 Budget and the drafting of the new Income Tax Bill. Pandey's appointment is for an initial period of three years.
The finance ministry will have to rely on the weapons in its arsenal, since monetary policy is not providing the support.
Currently, deposits of up to Rs 5 lakh are covered under the deposit-insurance scheme.
In 2023-2024, 95 scheduled commercial banks received over 10 million complaints from their customers. The process of KYC at many banks has become 'HYC' -- harass your customer, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The Supreme Court has directed the CBI to conduct a pan-India investigation into digital arrest scams and questioned the RBI about its lack of AI usage in detecting and freezing accounts used by cybercriminals.
State-owned banks have received guidance from the government to close Jan Dhan accounts whose beneficiaries are unwilling to keep them active, amid rising instances of such accounts being misused by fraudsters as mule accounts to defraud people, people aware of the development said.
As many as 2.17 lakh pieces of fake notes of various denominations were detected during 2024-25 compared to 2.23 lakh such notes in the previous year, Parliament was informed on Monday. Of this, highest -- 117,722 pieces -- counterfeit notes of 500 [MG (New) Series] were detected in FY25, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
This marks a 67% increase from the Rs 2,537 crore lost in scams in 2022-2023.
Fitch Ratings on Wednesday raised India's GDP growth forecast to 6.9 per cent for current fiscal year, from 6.5 per cent earlier, citing strong June quarter growth and domestic consumption-led demand.
Outgoing Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Tuesday that restoring inflation-growth balance is the most important task ahead of the central bank. Addressing a press conference on his last day as the central bank chief, Das said his successor will have to navigate the changing world order, effectively deal with cyber threats, and focus on harnessing new technologies.
The number of frauds in the banking sector increased over four times in the past five years to 36,075.
The RBI has also been asked to consider displaying this information on its website.
'It was like rigorously preparing for a solid, good exam...' 'I don't know what marks I will get, but I felt the rigorous preparation of an exam.' 'You may sweat, but I feel rejuvenated.'
The Russians have termed Putin's visit to India, his first to this country since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, as 'Druzhba Dosti', which means 'friendship' in Russian and Hindi respectively.
The bank made a Rs 67 crore net profit, up 21% from the previous year. Its deposits grew 8%, the loan book 10%. Net bad loans dropped from 7.53% to 6.07%. So why was the banker, who headed the bank, not promoted?
Several executives argue that UPI has the potential to grow tenfold, but warn that the absence of a monetisation model risks stagnating the real-time payments system, which has been recording all-time-high transaction volumes every year.
We propose an expert group be set up to form a national strategy on digital fraud. This group would bring together skills in financial regulation, security economics, cyber defence, and public communications, and an understanding of the Indian financial and security systems. It should lay the foundations of a coordinated approach by the Indian State in fighting digital fraud, suggest Ajay Shah and Nandkumar Saravade.
HDFC Bank on Sunday said that it will "pursue all lawful remedies" to recover public funds and address the retaliatory actions taken by the Mehta family of the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical (LKMM) Trust, which has filed a complaint against the bank's managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO) Sashidhar Jagdishan alleging financial fraud.
The interest rate on these schemes have remained unchanged for over a year now.
India's goods exports rebounded in July after two months of contraction, with outbound shipments rising 7.3 per cent to $37.24 billion, led by a surge in exports to the United States before the country's reciprocal tariff kicked in and bolstered by a recovery in exports to other key markets.
Among Sensex firms, Eternal, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Adani Ports, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Axis Bank and Sun Pharma were the major losers. Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle and Maruti were among the gainers.
Moody's Ratings on Wednesday said India's economic growth will exceed 6.5 per cent in the next fiscal, up from 6.3 per cent this year, on higher government capex and consumption boost from tax cuts and interest rate reduction. Projecting a stable outlook for the banking sector, Moody's said although the operating environment of Indian banks will remain favourable in the next fiscal, their asset quality will deteriorate moderately after substantial improvements in recent years, with some stress in unsecured retail loans, microfinance loans and small business loans.
New-age stocks to buy: Most new-age stocks have turned out to be wealth destroyers in stock markets, so far, in calendar year 2025. Shares of Ola Electric Mobility, for instance, have plunged nearly 50 per cent in the first half of CY 2025, while those of Swiggy, PB Fintech, Paytm, and Eternal (Zomato) have crashed between 6 per cent and 25 per cent, ACE Equity data shows.
In the past 10 years, over 500 PSB officers have died by suicide. When targets are overwhelming, senior management and customers are both impatient, and there is constant fear, not every banker has the resilience to survive and thrive, warns Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
UPI has catapulted India into the forefront on the global digital payments landscape. Working hand in hand, the AePS payments system is making life easy for rural folks, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Once bitten, twice shy, I didn't take up the challenge this time...' 'I realised I had failed to follow my karma because I feared failure.'
'AI analyses body language, etiquette, and communication skills, providing an in-depth performance matrix and a ranking system to help employees identify areas of improvement.'
'These children possess catastrophically low birth weights -- often 1.4 kgs or less. Such extremely low birth weight results in profoundly compromised neo-natal immunity.' 'The escalation to 97 deaths in three months precipitated contemporary attention precisely because this magnitude concentrates the humanitarian emergency, rendering it impossible for the administrative machinery to ignore.'
'Suddenly we had a new comprehension of affairs, which reminded that the luxury of politics floated atop a foundation by economics.' 'Along with this, finance ministers became crucial in molding the perception and reputation of Union Cabinets.' 'Governments couldn't afford a wrong person in that portfolio,' asserts Shyam G Menon.