Twenty years after India's insurance sector was opened up, unshackling the control of state-owned companies, as many as 50 private players have set up shop. Along with their foreign partners, private players have brought about a sea change in the product offering, distribution and underwriting processes, and services levels. Yet, India's insurance penetration needle has not moved much.
India may soon see a new set of oil barons with lesser-known companies venturing into crude oil and natural gas production. These new kids on the block have come up through a mix of entrepreneurial grit and backing from oil industry veterans. Nippon Power, South Asia Consultancy, PFH (Poddar Family Holdings) Resources and Chennai-based Adbhoot Estates could be the first ones to start production from blocks awarded during the first round of Discovered Small Field (DSF-1) auctions. Adbhoot is in a 50:50 joint venture with the Bombay Stock Exchange-listed Hindustan Oil Exploration Company that has some five oil producing assets and over 10 blocks across the country.
PV registrations in this year's festive period stood at 287,717 units as against 333,456 units in the corresponding period last year, down 14 per cent. Two-wheeler registrations also fell by 13 per cent to 15,83,276 units as against 18,11,703 units in the year-ago period.
'Given the emerging trends, it may be time for India to embrace digital banking,' notes Pradipta Bagchi.
Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, jumped to 2.55 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 20,700 crore) in 2020 on a sharp surge in holdings via securities and similar instruments, though customer deposits fell, annual data from Switzerland's central bank showed on Thursday. The increase in aggregate funds of Indian clients with Swiss banks, from 899 million Swiss francs (Rs 6,625 crore) at the end of 2019, reverses a two-year declining trend and has taken the figure to the highest level in 13 years. It stood at a record high of nearly 6.5 billion Swiss francs in 2006, after which it has been mostly on a downward path, except for a few years including in 2011, 2013 and 2017, as per the Swiss National Bank (SNB) data.
NBFCs with a proven track record, supported by the brand values of reputed corporate, can play a key role in bringing the benefits of banking and economy to the underserved and newer segments of India.
Bhattacharya is now more optimistic than before regarding the adoption of newer technologies, even though she acknowledges there could be short-term challenges owing to the pandemic. Salesforce is among the first global employers to take the 'no lay-off' pledge, pertaining to COVID-19.
The scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the Rs 20-lakh crore Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month.
IT, FMCG and manufacturing sectors are less attractive to foreign portfolio investors
The FM he said non-performing assets of PSBs have come down by Rs 1 lakh crore.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the minimum capital requirement for so-called shadow banks and tightened rules on deposits and bad loans to avoid any potential risk to the economy from these rapidly growing finance firms by regulating them like traditional banks.
The repo rate has been left unchanged at 4 per cent, Governor Shaktikanta Das said while announcing the decisions taken by the central bank's MPC.
India Inc's cash pile was up 13.8 per cent last fiscal year, thanks to a combination of higher profits in sectors such as IT and fund raising by top companies such a Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors, among others.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the Indian economy is witnessing a strong recovery after a long and strict lockdown. Addressing a press conference to announce more stimulus measures to boost growth, she said macro-economic indicators are pointing towards recovery. She noted that COVID-19 active cases have declined from over 10 lakh to 4.89 lakh with case fatality rate (CFR) at 1.47 per cent.
The government is set to ask PSBs to expeditiously introduce repo-rate linked products "to step up affordable credit".
Whatever you do, continue to pay your loan EMIs and insurance premiums for term and health policies (not investment-based policies) on time. Then try to buy yourself some breathing space, says Harsh Roongta.
The current wage revision for PSBs, as well as some private lenders, is due from November 2017 for five years - up to October 2022.
Allotment could be low, and expected listing-day gains can quickly morph into losses if sentiment takes a turn for the worse
Market players said NBFCs and HNIs are recalibrating their plans based on the changing dynamics.
"SIICL, which is one of the group companies belonging to Sahara group, as such cannot transact the business of non- banking financial institutions," RBI said on Friday.
Analysts attribute the surge to a host of factors, particularly the interest shown by the retail investors in these two market segments.
Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, who faced a stinging attack from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for presiding over the "worst phase" of the Indian banking sector, on Thursday reminded her that two-third of his tenure as the head of the central bank was under the Bharatiya Janata Party government.
The hoarding of cash accentuated from the very start of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic started taking hold the world over, and fear of the pandemic prodded people to remain liquid for emergency use.
The NBFC was registered on December 1998, with an office in Lucknow.
'We are probably working with flawed data on household finance.'
The underperformance comes amid liquidity concerns in the non-banking finance companies space and Essel Group default news.
White labeled ATMs are set up by private non-bank companies that own and operate their own brand of ATMs.
S&P Global Ratings on Monday expressed scepticism over allowing corporate ownership in banks given India's weak corporate governance amid large corporate defaults over the past few years. It also said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will face challenges in supervising non-financial sector entities at a time when the health of financial sector is weak. Last week, a RBI panel had proposed that large corporate may be permitted to promote banks, as well as raising the cap on promoters' stake in private sector banks to 26 per cent, from15 per cent at present.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral free automatic loan for businesses, including MSMEs, to benefit 45 lakh small businesses. Detailing parts of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package, she said this loan will have a 4-year tenure and will have 12-month moratorium, she said.
The finance minister chaired a meeting through video conference with major private banks and NBFCs to ensure effective rollout of ECLGS and uninterrupted liquidity to Indian MSMEs in this difficult time.
'Facilitating conversion of well-run NBFCs into banks is urgently needed.'
One smells a rat when cases are settled for too small a price offered either by the highest bidder or the promoter -- within and outside the legal ambit of insolvency process, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Former RBI governors Urjit Patel and Raghuram Rajan have also expressed worry about the Mudra scheme, particularly government's target-setting practice and the rising bad loans.
WLA operators will have an option to provide facilities for Dynamic Currency Conversion for international cards.
Barclays Finance, the non-banking finance arm of Barclays Corporate in India, plans to close the majority of its branches here, as part of the lender's plan to scale down retail operations in the country.
A strong start-up ecosystem can propel investment, jobs, and demand creation, and for that, substantial growth capital is required.
The report said resilience of the banks has increased with a sharp improvement in the provision coverage ratio to 60.6 per cent in March 2019 from 52.4 per cent in September 2018 and 48.3 per cent in March 2018.
Gadkari said, infrastructure sector including highways, airports, inland waterways, railways, logistic parks, broad gauge and metro, apart from MSMEs can attract large scale foreign investment.
RBI's licensing norms require a bank to bring down promoter holding to 40 % within 3 years of operation - which, for Bandhan Bank, will be by Aug 23
While foreign currency rating was retained at Baa2 -- the second-lowest investment grade score -- Moody's also projected a fiscal deficit of 3.7 per cent of gross domestic product in the year through March 2020, a breach of the government's target of 3.3 per cent.
