'While consumers have benefited tremendously from rock-bottom telecom tariffs, the telecom sector has been reeling under deep financial stress,' points out Rajan S Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India.
A plea that the banking regulator's stress should be on the strategic role of boards and an increase in the remuneration of independent directors were among the issues put forward to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) top brass in its interaction with the full boards of state-run banks held on Monday. The meeting, the first leg of first-of-its-kind interactions with the boards of state-run banks, will now be followed by those of private banks in Mumbai on May 29. The RBI's press release, issued late on Monday, did not refer to the specific points that found mention in the deliberations, but top sources told Business Standard the twin concerns were taken up in the open-house interaction with the banking regulator's brass.
The Indian economy will grow at around 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal, notwithstanding high crude oil prices and increased uncertainty due climate changes, NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani said on Thursday. Virmani also asserted that the gross household savings ratio in India has consistently gone up. In an interview with PTI, he said: "My growth projection (of India's GDP growth) is 6.5 per cent plus minus 0.5 per cent... because my experience is that the fluctuations in global GDP more or less has balanced out for us, assuming normal changes."
The Indian economy has "some bright spots and a number of very dark stains" and the government should target its spending "carefully" so that there are no huge deficits, noted economist and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Sunday. Known for his frank views, Rajan also said the government needs to do more to prevent a K-shaped recovery of the economy hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Generally, a K-shaped recovery will reflect a situation where technology and large capital firms recover at a far faster rate than small businesses and industries that have been significantly impacted by the pandemic.
It's going to be a hell of journey, says Sindhu welcoming new coach Hafiz Hashim
'But he was very quick and did a very stylish adab.' 'Of course, I didn't expect him to hug.'
Asserting that the world does not have much time to correct the mistakes of the last century, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced a 'Green Credit Initiative' focused on creating carbon sinks through people's participation and also proposed to host the United Nations climate conference in 2028, or COP33, in India.
Punjab has over 400,000 employees and pensioners and about 125,000 staff members in its corporations and boards.
The framework also envisages amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act to exempt commercial decisions by PSBs from scrutiny by investigating agencies. Both the amendments are likely in the monsoon session of Parliament.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has initiated discussions with banks to address financial stress in the telecom sector, particularly Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) that urgently requires fund infusion to stay afloat. There was a meeting of DOT officials and senior bankers on Friday on the issue of Vodafone, sources said, adding that banks have been asked to look for a solution within the prudential guidelines. According to sources, senior officials from the country's biggest lenders State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda were also present among others in the meeting. More such meetings are expected to take place in the coming days, they said.
The average time lag between the date of occurrence of a fraud and its detection is 23 months; for large frauds (Rs 100 crore and above), it was 57 months.
Even though the powers of the board of directors stand suspended once a company's insolvency process begins, it does not absolve the directors from actions taken up to two years earlier.
Reforms are key to India sustaining the pre-economic crisis growth rate of 9 per cent, United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in New Delhi on Monday.
A former deputy head teacher at a London primary school who had pleaded guilty to paying and instructing teenagers in India to abuse younger children was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Wednesday.
However, official sources said the Assam Rifles -- a border guarding force -- primary mandate or task is not drug law enforcement.
Believe it or not, the regulator is even stretching its arm to identify stressed borrowers and gauge the 'distance to default' as a measure of a particular bank's fragility, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to join the grouping.
Are you financially fit? Here's what it takes to maintain a sound financial health.
The family of the farmer from Rajasthan, who on Wednesday committed suicide at a public rally in the national capital, claimed that he took the extreme step due to "unexpected loss" of his crops.
If you are considering pregnancy, it is advisable to meet with a healthcare provider to discuss your overall health, any pre-existing conditions, and any steps you can take to optimise your health before conceiving, advises Dr Kiran Coelho.
The Reserve Bank could consider setting up of a Fraud Registry on the lines of Credit Information Bureau to check criminal activities in the financial sector.
Shares of SpiceJet zoomed almost 20 per cent on Friday on expectations of revival of the distressed air carrier.
With this, the total number of aircraft taken out of operations due to cash crunch in the airline and its subsequent failure to pay rentals to various lessors has gone up to 21 so far.
Noted banker Deepak Parekh on Thursday pitched for simpler corporate governance norms that focus more on trust than just compliance, saying economics and ethics are not trade-offs but complementary. Behind each financial crisis there is a governance failure but it is the entire system that gets impacted, because an eruption of a corporate or financial crisis almost always means a tightening of rules and regulations and increased compliance for all, he said. The HDFC chairman, who was addressing a seminar on corporate governance organised by former Sebi chairman M Damodaran's advocacy Excellence Enablers in Mumbai, stressed that the ultimate objective should be that corporate governance systems must become simpler and not more complicated.
Modi also invoked Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha to urge the delegates to draw inspiration from India's civilisational ethos and "focus not on what divides us, but on what unites us."
'I can confidently say there will be another financial crisis soon enough, and probably more than one global crisis within the next century, given the increasingly integrated nature of the global economy.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked financial institutions to come out with innovative and futuristic financing as well as risk management ideas to fund the emerging needs of the economy. Stating that implementation of green financing is the 'need of the hour' to meet net-zero carbon emissions target by 2070, Modi said financial help should be extended to environment-friendly projects. "Our financing sector will have to look into new futuristic ideas, initiatives and think of innovative financing and sustainable risk management ideas," Modi said in a post-Budget webinar on 'Financing for growth and aspirational economy'.
State-owned Punjab & Sind Bank is targeting salary accounts to boost the share of low-cost deposits. Swarup Saha, managing director and chief executive officer of the New Delhi-based lender, tells Manojit Saha that the bank may see gross non-performing assets (NPAs) fall below 8 per cent if there is resolution of the stressed assets.
According to the Indian Fireworks' Manufacturers' Association, the ban would wipe out sales of around Rs 600 crore during the upcoming Deepavali season.
Customers of stressed Punjab & Maharashtra Co-Operative Bank (PMC Bank) will not get up to Rs 5 lakh insurance cover in the first lot as the multi-state co-operative bank is under the resolution process. Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) in the first lot will pay customers of 20 stressed banks except PMC Bank. For the first lot, the mandatory 90 days period concludes on November 30.
"Do you want us to tell the doctors at AIIMS to stop the fetal heart?" the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, asked the counsel appearing for the 27-year-old woman.
The government's regional connectivity scheme UDAN has witnessed a slow progress of implementation, as not even 50 per cent of the route have been operationalised and the second wave of the pandemic, which started from mid of March 2021, may impact it further going forward, according to a report. Rating agency ICRA in its report on Tuesday said that there is likely to be a further delay of two years in achieving the target of operationalising as many as 100 unserved and underserved airports and starting at least 1,000 RCS routes by 2024. Aimed at enhancing regional connectivity through fiscal support and infrastructure development, the maiden flight under the Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Shimla for Delhi on April 27, 2017.
It is a national economic problem and one that requires a political solution hand in hand with a clear government commitment to stand behind core national assets, says Vinayak Chatterjee.
Muraleedharan said that terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab have put in place elaborate revenue collection networks, to support their terrorist activities.
Moody's Investors Service on Friday slashed its estimate of India's GDP growth during the 2020 calendar year to 2.5 per cent from an earlier estimate of 5.3 per cent, on account of the rising economic cost of the coronavirus pandemic.
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Monday that fair and impartial auditing is essential for a resilient economy as it instils confidence among citizens. Addressing officers at the National Academy of Audit and Accounts, Das said that audit is important for the country as public expenditure decisions are based on these reports. Observing that there is a need to improve the quality and depth of audit, he said the Reserve Bank has taken a host of steps in consultation with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for improving the audit of banks and financial institutions.
Apart from answering all these questions confidently, it is suggested that you keep all the relevant documents along with tickets and passport handy.
Markets under pressure; IT financials grab spotlight.
Though the economy has steadily gained momentum and remained resilient since the second quarter of the current fiscal, the Omicron variant of coronavirus remains the major challenge along with rising inflation pressures, says the Reserve Bank in its second financial stability report. In the foreword to the report released on Wednesday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das notes that after the destructive second wave in April-May 2021, the growth outlook has progressively improved, though there are headwinds from global developments and more recently from the Omicron virus. A stronger and sustainable recovery hinges on the revival of private investment and shoring up private consumption, which unfortunately still remain below their pre-pandemic levels, he notes.
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday said in the wake of appreciating US dollar, the movement of rupee has remained least disruptive as compared to its peers, and the size of foreign exchange reserve is comfortable. On a financial year basis (from April to October 2022), the rupee has appreciated by 3.2 per cent in real terms, even as several major currencies have depreciated, he said while announcing the latest set of bi-monthly monetary policy. "The story of the rupee has been one of India's resilience and stability," the Governor said while pointing out that the appreciation of the US dollar this year, which precipitated large-scale depreciation of all major global currencies including the Indian rupee, has drawn wide attention.
