With retail inflation surprising on the upside, the six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to increase the repo rate by 35-50 basis points (bps) in the review scheduled for September 28-30. According to economists, the central bank will continue to focus on bringing inflation down even though economic growth has remained sluggish. Data released by the government on Monday showed that the consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation increased by 7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in August, thus, staying above the upper tolerance limit of the central bank for all the eight months of 2022.
They've also asked to explain how the disclosure of the documents would impact the country's economic interests.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the recent interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank was not surprising for her but the timing was, asserting that the rising cost of funds will not impact the government's planned infrastructure investments. For the first time since August 2018, RBI had on May 4 delivered a blunt 40 basis points increase in key repo rate to 4.40 per cent, and also hiked the cash reserve ratio by 50 basis points to 4.5 per cent after an unscheduled meeting of the rate setting panel, citing increased inflation pressures following the Ukraine war and the resultant spike in crude oil prices. Retail inflation printed at 6.9 per cent in March and the April reading is forecast to top 7.7 per cent.
The Supreme Court in a 4:1 majority verdict upheld the government's 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination notes, saying the decision-making process was not flawed.
The action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers, RBI said.
'The new ceiling will cover around 93 per cent of all deposit accounts, up from 90 per cent earlier,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'In times of recovery, we may see a rural-urban divide with the urban pockets affected more by COVID-19, but the MFI business model should encourage banks to handhold them in this hour of crisis,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The status quo decision came as a breather as only last week the RBI had pulled up banks for not helping it in monetary policy transmission.
The Union finance ministry on Thursday issued a clarification on the changes in FEMA rules which brings overseas international credit card spending under the RBI's liberalised remittance scheme (LRS). Here's how it affects you.
Mody, the returning officer for the presidential election, said 115 nomination papers of 94 persons were received till Wednesday, of which 107 were rejected for not meeting the required criteria.
Enabling the online booking and payment for Indian Railway tickets is one such case. Amitabh Pandey's book is about how he went about enthusing teams inside the Indian Railways and facilitating online reservations, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
The central bank said its board of directors had approved the broad contours of the proposals.
For financial sector companies setting up shop in India, as of now the go-to regulators are obviously Sebi and the RBI with carve-outs for IRDAI or possibly PFRDA. But this could change soon with the International Financial Services Centres Authority, observes Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
What connects P S Jayakumar of Bank of Baroda, V Vaidyanathan of Capital First Ltd and Chandra Shekhar Ghosh of Bandhan?
Earlier, the Reserve Bank of India was the approving authority.
'The government will carefully regulate and monitor the Digital Rupee, and because the currency is supposed to be tied to INR or supported by reserves, we should expect little fluctuation in pricing.'
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unexpectedly kept the country's policy interest rate on hold on Wednesday, despite calling current inflation too high, citing the prospect of easing retail prices and its concerns about the weak domestic economy.
The criticism that the Reserve Bank of India was behind the curve in hiking interest rate to tame rising inflation is unfair, former RBI Governor D Subbarao said on Wednesday and asserted that it is difficult for any central bank to anticipate the future more accurately. Earlier this month, Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the central bank's rate-setting panel, surprised the markets with a 40 basis points hike in repo rate in an off-cycle policy meeting. It was also the first rate hike after August 2018, amid spiralling inflation.
Tamal Bandyopadhyay offers some unsolicited advice for a government wh,ich came to power, with brute majority and the nation's pragmatic chief money man.
Dy Governor notes it's an era of job changes for better.
Does the Union government or the RBI see itself as Krishna beheading Shishupal and what will constitute the 101st or indeed the past many sins for which a Sudarshan Chakra will have to be used? More importantly, what are those sins?
Maharashtra and West Bengal lead the way in bank fraud.
Amid prolonged uncertainty, continued policy support will be crucial for sustained economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said at the recent meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee. "In this period of prolonged uncertainty, it would be wise to remain agile and respond in a gradual, calibrated and well telegraphed manner to the emerging challenges," opined Das, according to the minutes of the MPC meeting released by the Reserve Bank on Thursday. Observing that economic recovery from the pandemic remains incomplete and uneven, he said, "continued support from various policies remains crucial for a sustained recovery." The governor said the renewed surge in international crude oil prices, however, requires close monitoring.
As lobbying and counter-lobbying intensify, right now, it looks like a T20 match, discovers Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The government reserved all jobs in J-K for the domiciles -- people who have stayed there for at least 15 years. On Wednesday, while laying down the rules for domiciles, the government had reserved jobs up to Group 4 only.
'We feel there is definitely something murky in the system.' 'Will anyone believe that Nirav Modi will go to a branch and bribe a low-level officer?' 'Just look at the people with whom he had moved around.'
RBI wants the lending rates to be determined by the market.
'The temptation of governments, to have a finger in the RBI pie will be just too great to resist, unless extensive amendments are carried out in the RBI Act treating it almost as the fourth branch of the government.'
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das tells Anup Roy, Raghu Mohan and Niraj Bhatt that it is time for banks to lower interest rates and start lending to cash-starved finance companies after due credit appraisal and proper risk assessment.
Officials say that such a list, to be updated on a real-time basis, will serve as a ready reckoner in identifying those committing multiple economic offences
In the context of market integrity, the IRAI and RBI should go over the minutes of the LIC and SBI board meetings when the decisions to invest in Adani equity or debt were taken, notes Jaimini Bhagwati, former World Bank treasury professional.
No government can 'ignore inclusiveness in a democracy', Montek Singh Ahluwalia tells Anjuli Bhargava.
Congress says the notification required to be issued under the RBI Act for printing new currency has not been issued.
Outgoing Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan talks about market realities like fall of gilt yields and the importance of creating investment fluctuation reserves by banks.
One incident should not be used to generalise the health of all cooperative banks, says RBI governor Shaktikanta Das.
The agency had received Rs 946.51 crore to manage its affairs in the Budget Estimates for 2023-24, which was later increased to Rs 968.86 crore in the Revised Estimates.
Rajan said RBI should pay as much dividend as possible to the government, which over the past two years has run into billions of dollars
Unlike in the past, when old private banks compromised upon underwriting standards to take on the bulk, they've now realised that scaling up at the cost of quality isn't worth the while. These banks have also readjusted growth targets when required, and rebalanced books to preserve capital and asset quality.
If indeed we want the board to manage the RBI, probably the government should take a close look at the US Federal Reserve system which has a two-part structure - a central authority in Washington, DC, and a decentralised network of 12 Federal Reserve Banks located throughout the country, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Leaving it to Parliament the issue of amending laws to provide heavier penalty on banks indulging in such acts, RBI Governor D Subbarao also dismissed perceptions that the central bank was going soft on errant banks.