The government should not go in for an 'aggressive fiscal consolidation' in the upcoming Budget as global risks have not abated, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Member Ashima Goyal said on Wednesday. Goyal further said subsidies are expected to come down as food and energy inflation moderates. WPI inflation in food articles in November was 1.07 per cent against 8.33 per cent in the previous month.
Services sector activities improved further and touched a five-month high in April driven by a surge in incoming new work orders that boosted business activity and supported a renewed increase in employment, according to a survey. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Services PMI Business Activity Index jumped to 57.9 in April, from 53.6 in March, highlighting a sharp rate of expansion that was the fastest since last November amid mounting price pressures. For the ninth straight month, the services sector witnessed an expansion in output.
Achieving inflation target of 4 per cent, recovery after remonetisation and hardening profile of oil prices are some of the risks which the RBI is watching closely, says Gaurav Kapur.
RBI will take a cue from the Fed policy statement.
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.
If a holiday, banks will have to report the details on the next working day.
Banks have issues with their balance sheet profiles, say PSB executives.
'The actions of Indian monetary authorities will depend on how quickly they want the inflation to come down to 4 per cent.'
Whether this remains under control in the coming months will depend on the future intensity and spread of the Russia-Ukraine war, and the effectiveness of the Indian government's response, points out A K Bhattacharya.
The principal challenge for Rajan's successor is to work with the Bank Board Bureau and the finance ministry to complete these processes of banking reform.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday exuded confidence that inflation would further decline and the government is on track to meet its budgetary target for deficit and said that there is no fear of stagflation in India. Replying to the debate on first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants 2022-23 in Lok Sabha, the finance minister said inflation has come down and it is now in the tolerable band of the RBI. Inflation has been declining since April 2022 and it is declining further, she said.
It is time for the three finance ministers of the 1990s to reveal the real hero, says T C A Srinavasa-Raghavan.
The final report was to be submitted in March but it got an extension till the second week of the monsoon session that began September 14.
The government is likely to introduce a bill on crypto currencies during the winter session of Parliament beginning November 29, amid concerns over such currencies being allegedly used for luring investors with misleading claims and for funding terror activities, sources said on Monday. Currently, there are no particular regulations or any ban on use of crypto currencies in the country. Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday, held a meeting on the crypto currencies with senior officials and indications are that strong regulatory steps could be taken to deal with the issue.
A fall in the rupee could boost exports. But the flip side of the equation is that a weaker rupee could stoke some inflation
At least five state-run banks on central bank's radar for lax credit appraisal
Garg had refused to sign on the report finalised by the former Reserve Bank of India governor Bimal Jalan-led committee reviewing the central bank's economic capital framework (ECF).
Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel on Saturday exhorted banks to reduce their lending rates to push credit demand in laggard segments, saying banks have benefited from influx of low-cost deposits and its previous repo rate cuts.
Bank licencing has been a "once in a decade" affair and so it could well be that we don't face this process anytime soon.
Former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar on Tuesday approached the Bombay high court, calling their arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a loan fraud case illegal. The high court, however, refused to grant an urgent hearing and directed the Kochhars to mention the matter before the regular bench once it resumes after vacation. A lawyer representing the Kocchars said that no prior sanction, as required under the law, was obtained by the CBI before their arrest.
A day after the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) Monetary Policy Committee hiked the policy repo rate by 50 basis points (bps), several commercial banks, including ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda, raised their external benchmark-linked loan rates by an equal amount on Thursday. HDFC, the country's largest mortgage lender, too, increased its interest rates on housing loans by another 50 bps. In total, it has raised rates by 85 bps since May 4, when the RBI had increased the repo rate by 40 bps in an off-cycle meeting.
The Reserve Bank on Tuesday said growth is expected to fall below 5 per cent in 2013-14 in absence of pick-up in manufacturing sector, but likely to recover to 5.5 per cent in the next financial year.
It also recommended that the RBI accounting year (July-June) may be brought in sync with the fiscal year (April to March) from the financial year 2020-21 as it could reduce the need for interim dividend being paid by the central bank.
Bank credit growth, still sluggish, could see a rise if the Reserve Bank of India decides to cut interest rates, believes Ashima Goyal.
The talk of governance reforms at public-sector banks seems to remain on paper, as a majority of them continue to be working with just a handful board members. Half of the board seat at these banks have been vacant. Ten of the 12 public-sector banks, even large ones like Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India - all except State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda - don't even have a chairman. In 2014, while splitting the post of chairman & managing director (CMD), the government had decided to appoint non-executive chairmen at these banks. SBI, which has an executive chairman and four managing directors, was an exception.
India has been relatively insulated from the severe headwinds in the West. However, with a third of the global economy expected to slip into recession in calendar year 2023, the impact will strongly be felt on India's exports and trade economy, leading economists said in a panel discussion at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit in Mumbai on Wednesday. The panel comprised former Reserve Bank of India executive director and former Monetary Policy Committee member Mridul Saggar, State Bank of India Chief Economic Advisor Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Citibank India Chief Economist Samiran Chakraborty, ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar, and IndusInd Bank Chief Economist Gaurav Kapoor. The topic of the panel discussion was No recession in sight: Is India decoupled from developed economies?
It's crucial for Modi to make India an easier place to do business.
The 26 sectors specified by the RBI include automobiles, power, tourism, cement, chemicals, gems and jewellery, logistic, mining, manufacturing, real estate, and shipping among others.
'Hacking of an ID or an account will have the same impact on a user in a city and one in a small town.' 'Security is like a railroad, you create it to last for every customer.'
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said they will pose three questions a day to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.
Y Venugopal Reddy, currently executive director of International Monetary Fund will be the new Governor of Reserve Bank of India, succeeding Bimal Jalan.
The finance ministry on Thursday raised concerns over the possible impact of El Nio conditions on India this year, saying if recent forecasts came true, the country could see lower agricultural output and higher inflation. "Some meteorological agencies predict the return of El Nio conditions in India this year. "If these predictions are accurate, then monsoon rains could be deficient, leading to lower agricultural output and higher prices," the ministry said in its monthly economic review.
Two straight years of less than 5 percent economic expansion have led to a surge in bad loans for Indian lenders.
As lobbying and counter-lobbying intensify, right now, it looks like a T20 match, discovers Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Expressing serious concern over contraction in industrial output in November, India Inc called for immediate policy interventions, including a rate cut by RBI, to prevent job losses and boost demand.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the government is working out a new Bill on cryptocurrency which will be placed in the ongoing session of Parliament after approval of the Union Cabinet. The ongoing winter session is scheduled to end on December 23. Replying to a series of questions in the Rajya Sabha, she said the new Bill takes into account the rapidly changing dimensions in virtual currency space, and incorporate features of the earlier Bill that could not be taken up.
'Once the Hon'ble Supreme Court has declared the law, we are obliged to accept it. However, it is necessary to point out that the majority has not upheld the wisdom of the decision; nor has the majority concluded that the stated objectives were achieved,' the senior Congress leader said in a tweet.
The most important institutions have been and are being undermined with almost no resistance, warns Aakar Patel.
The rupee plunged 58 paise to close at an all-time low of 81.67 (provisional) against the US dollar on Monday as the strengthening of the American currency overseas and risk-averse sentiment among investors weighed on the local unit. Moreover, escalation of geopolitical risks due to conflict in Ukraine, a negative trend in domestic equities and significant foreign fund outflows sapped investor appetite, forex traders said. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 81.47, then fell further to close at an all-time low of 81.67 against the American currency, registering a decline of 58 paise over its previous close.
HDFC Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding over 3.5 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, L&T, HDFC, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC and Kotak Bank.
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