Banking sector has witnessed healthy growth in advances in the third quarter of financial year 2026 (Q3FY26) against the same period last year, as the full impact of goods and service tax (GST) rate cuts drove growth. Most of the lenders saw their credit growth outpace the deposit growth in the quarter.
Even as festive hiring for the year surged, wage parity between gig and permanent employees remained unresolved, with 47 per cent of respondents believing there is a pay gap, a report has revealed.
The Centre is regularly holding consultations with stakeholders to streamline foreign direct investments (FDIs) and foreign institutional investments (FIIs) related processes to enable faster and more efficient investment flows into the country, said Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, adding one such meeting with stakeholders was held on Tuesday.
Private sector banks slipped in market capitalisation (mcap) during the July-September quarter, underperforming their government-owned peers as trade uncertainties dragged market sentiment, said S&P Global Market Intelligence. According to its analysis, HDFC Bank shed 4.8 per cent in mcap during the third quarter, while ICICI Bank's dropped 6.7 per cent.
The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) Payment Systems Report highlighted that between 2019 and 2024, credit card transactions doubled in volume and almost tripled in value. During the same period, however, debit card transactions witnessed a decline, both in volume and value.
Cleaner balance sheets, regulatory support and strong growth prospects helped Indian private banks attract over $6 billion in foreign capital, with more deals expected in 2026.
The average cost of an organisation for a data breach has risen 13 per cent to Rs 22 crore in 2025 from Rs 19.5 crore in the year-ago period, according to a report released on Thursday. However, despite the surge in costs, the security in artificial intelligence is still lacking, the report by global tech major IBM said.
Trading sentiment in the equity market will be guided by macroeconomic data announcements, global trends and quarterly earnings from IT major TCS this week, analysts said. Stock markets would also be tracking trading activity of foreign investors who remained net sellers of Indian equities in September.
Leading non-banking financial company (NBFC) Shriram Finance on Friday said Japan-based MUFG Bank would invest Rs 39,618 crore, or $4.4 billion, to acquire a 20 per cent stake on a fully diluted basis through a preferential issue of equity shares.
'The government's decision to keep interest rates unchanged on small savings schemes will certainly constrain banks' ability to cut deposit rates further.'
A new report indicates a significant rise in reported sexual offences against children in India, but also highlights strong prosecution rates and detection systems.
The government has not made any amendments to the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy for countries sharing land border with India, sources said on Wednesday. In 2020, the government issued Press Note 3 under which investors from these land bordering countries have to mandatorily take prior approval of the government for making investments in any sector.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to grant need-based working capital loans to manufacturers using gold as raw material, extending the provision currently available only to jewellers. Banks are generally prohibited from lending for the purchase of gold/silver in any form, or lending against the security of primary gold/silver.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its Financial Stability Report (FSR), cautioned that stress tests indicate two scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) may have to dip into their capital conservation buffers (CCBs), unless stakeholders infuse capital, under a scenario involving a gradual slowdown in domestic GDP growth and a moderate rise in inflation, with limited policy easing space available to the central bank.
The central government has proposed just two tax rates of 5 per cent and 18 per cent in the revamped Goods and Services Tax (GST), slated to replace the current indirect tax regime by Diwali this year, highly placed sources said.
The Supreme Court of India has appealed to women, particularly Hindu women without sons, daughters, or husbands, to make wills to avoid potential property disputes, highlighting the increasing number of women with self-acquired property.
New business premiums of life insurance companies dropped 5.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in August to Rs 30,959 crore, owing to a double-digit decline reported by state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), data from the Life Insurance Council showed. LIC recorded a 17 per cent YoY fall in new business premiums to Rs 16,023 crore during the month, while private life insurers reported a 12 per cent YoY increase to Rs 14,936 crore.
A couple from Kerala, running a chit fund company in Bengaluru, has allegedly fled after cheating over 1,300 investors of more than Rs 50 crore. Police have launched a manhunt and are investigating the extent of the fraud.
The government has identified critical sectors, including electronics, chemicals, leather and footwear, and toys, where value chains can be strengthened to facilitate and drive foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country. Invest India, the investment promotion and facilitating agency under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), has been actively identifying key value chains to focus on.
Stock markets will be driven by RBI's interest rate decision, tariff-related developments, global trends and trading activity of foreign investors in this holiday-shortened week, analysts said.
India's labour market in the second quarter (July-September/Q2) of 2025-26 (FY26) showed resilience, with the jobless rate easing even as more people entered the workforce. However, a rise in youth unemployment and a fall in the share of salaried workers remain areas of concern.
Capital investment by the private sector is likely to rise 21.5 per cent to Rs 2.67 lakh crore in 2025-26 aided by robust macroeconomic fundamentals, and a 100-bps policy rate cut, according to an RBI article. Despite global uncertainties, Indian firms entered the 2025-26 fiscal year with healthier balance sheets, higher cash buffer, improved profitability, and greater access to diversified funding sources, said the article 'Private Corporate Investment: Growth in 2024-25 and Outlook for 2025-26' published in the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) August bulletin.
Balanced advantage funds (BAFs), which adjust between stocks and bonds depending on market conditions, have increased their equity holdings over the past year, with most schemes now predominantly invested in equities.
Public sector banks (PSBs) have written off bad loans of about Rs 5.82 lakh crore in the last five financial years, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. During 2024-25, the loan write-off of PSBs was at Rs 91,260 crore, compared to Rs 1.15 lakh crore in the previous fiscal, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
Uttam's Take: KCR's Telangana household survey
The All India Insurance Employees' Association has opposed the government directive seeking to open up top posts in the state-owned insurers to the private sector, saying this would lead to greater private influence and "eventual privatisation".
In the June 16 advisory, the US urged its citizens to exercise "increased caution" due to crime and rape, and advised them not to travel to certain parts of central and eastern parts of the country due to terrorism.
Market regulator Sebi on Thursday said that timelines for portfolio rebalancing in mutual fund schemes will now be applicable to all types of passive breaches across actively managed schemes, which was earlier limited to only asset allocation. A passive breach refers to unintended deviations from the mandated asset allocation or regulatory limits that do not arise from the direct actions or omissions of asset management companies (AMCs).
'It's better to stay away from large IT stocks until there is clarity on tariffs.'
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday announced a fresh round of liquidity measures through open-market operations (OMOs) and a foreign exchange buy-sell swap, under which it will inject close to Rs 3 trillion into the banking system. The central bank said it would purchase Government of India securities worth Rs 2 trillion through OMOs, spread across four tranches of Rs 50,000 crore each to be conducted on December 29, January 5, January 12 and January 22.
India's mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity cooled in the second quarter of 2025-26 (Q2FY26), with deal value falling to $26.26 billion from $29.04 billion a year ago, according to Bloomberg data.
Global funds' assets under custody (AUC) in India have been flat this year, with a Rs 2 trillion drop in information technology (IT) holdings offset by gains in financial stocks. AUC is the total market value of equities held by FPIs.
Credit quality of Indian corporate is expected to be stable in the second half of the current financial year (H2FY26), supported by easing monetary cycle, and declining inflation, coupled with income-tax relief and rationalisation of the goods and service tax (GST) rates, among others.
Venture funding in India slowed in the third quarter (Q3) of 2025 amid geopolitical uncertainty, though exit activity surged to a seven-year high, according to Venture Pulse from KPMG Private Enterprise, a quarterly report tracking investment trends globally across major regions around the world.
There were 18 exits from the index between 1995 and 2000. The pace has since dropped to single-digit exits over every five-year period.
This marks a rebound after more than two years of underperformance during a strong rally in smallcap stocks.
The Centre has proposed exempting life and health insurance policies for individuals from GST, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and convenor of insurance GoM Samrat Choudhary said on Wednesday. Currently, health and life insurance premium attracts 18 per cent GST.
'We operate in an economy that is structurally positioned for long-term growth. As market levels rise over time, our AUM grows in line.'
'The informal sector can grow at a 100 per cent rate -- we have to plan big.'
The Centre's fiscal deficit stood at 17.9 per cent of the full-year target at the end of June, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Thursday. It was at 8.4 per cent of Budget Estimates (BE) of 2024-25 in the first three months of the previous financial year.
