The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to cut interest rates for the first time in nearly five years in Governor Sanjay Malhotra's first monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting on Wednesday. The meeting of the six-member MPC, which will culminate on Friday, aims to boost sluggish economic growth, which is seen falling to a four-year low. Malhotra took charge as the 26th RBI governor in December last year.
India's forex reserves jumped $4.7 billion to $702.97 billion for the week ended September 12, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had increased $4.04 billion to $698.27 billion.
Ahead of the key meeting called by the steel ministry with the industry captains on Monday to discuss the impact of rising steel imports, companies have raised the issue of cheaper 'substandard' inflows from China, Vietnam, and South Korea, saying they are setting the benchmark for domestic prices and squeezing the profitability of Indian producers.
The initial public offering of non-banking financial company Tata Capital Ltd got fully subscribed on the final day of bidding on Wednesday. The company's Rs 15,512 crore share sale received bids for 45,84,78,044 shares against 33,34,36,996 shares on offer, translating into 1.38 times subscription, according to NSE data till 13:36 hours.
The Reserve Bank on Wednesday lowered the inflation projection for the current fiscal to 4 per cent from 4.2 per cent earlier, taking into account good agricultural output and falling crude prices.
Reserve Bank on Tuesday launched mobile application 'RBIDATA' which will provide access to more than 11,000 different series of economic data related to the Indian economy. The mobile app offers macroeconomic and financial statistics relating to the Indian economy in a user-friendly and visually engaging format, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a release.
Currently there are 26 licensed players in the P2P lending sector but only 10-11 are actively operating.
Among Sensex firms, Maruti, Axis Bank, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Adani Ports and Hindustan Unilever were the laggards. However, Titan, State Bank of India, Eternal and Trent were among the major gainers.
The RBI is likely to reduce the key interest rate by 25 basis points this week after keeping it on hold for two years, complementing the Union Budget initiatives to push consumption-led demand, though the sliding rupee continues to be a concern. As the retail inflation has remained within the Reserve Bank's comfort zone (less than 6 per cent) for most of the year, the central bank can take rate action to boost growth hit by sluggish consumption, opined experts.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday said regulations should not create unintended barriers to financial inclusion while emphasising that the impact of regulations on individuals and businesses should be considered.
The ratio of MF assets under management to total bank deposits has more than doubled in 10 years.
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.
Sanjay Malhotra takes charge as the 26th RBI governor at a time when headline retail inflation has shot up to 6.2%.
India's forex reserves rose by $2.7 billion to $698.19 billion during the week ended July 25, the RBI said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had dropped $1.183 billion to $695.489 billion.
Amid the ongoing global tariff war, Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Wednesday said he is more worried about its impact on growth than inflation. Speaking to the media after presentation of the first bi-monthly monetary policy for the current financial year, Malhotra said, RBI has reduced the growth forecast for 2025-26 by 20 basis points to 6.5 per cent.
High frequency indicators, like vehicles sales, air traffic, steel consumption and GST E-way bills, point towards a sequential pickup in momentum of economic activity during the second half of the fiscal 2024-25 and sustain moving forward, RBI Bulletin said on Wednesday. However, a strong dollar, driven by US economic resilience and trade policy pivots, could exacerbate capital outflows from emerging economies, push risk premiums higher, and intensify external vulnerabilities, said an article on 'State of the Economy' published in RBI's February bulletin.
India's forex reserves jumped $4.04 billion to $698.27 billion during the week ended September 5 on the back of a sizeable increase in value of gold reserves, the RBI data said on Friday.
Indian corporates collectively raised over Rs 17,500 crore from the domestic debt capital market through bond issuances on Tuesday. The issuances were led by Bharti Telecom's Rs 10,500 crore fundraise in two tranches, the largest by an Indian company in the domestic market so far in FY26.
Perhaps because the Modi government had some differences of opinion with two of the economist governors (one of whom was appointed by the Manmohan Singh government), there is a view that its political leadership prefers a civil servant to head the RBI, notes A K Bhattacharya.
Indian corporate are increasingly shifting away from bank funding towards alternative sources, such as equity and bond markets, as their deleveraged balance sheets have improved their ability to raise equity at better valuations. Moreover, the 100 basis points (bps) rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has enabled them to access long-term funds from the debt capital market at cheaper rates.
Wholesale price inflation (WPI) softened to 0.13 per cent in September on easing in prices of food articles and manufactured items, government data showed on Tuesday. WPI-based inflation was 0.52 per cent in August and 1.91 per cent in September last year.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a case against Reliance Communications and its promoter-director Anil Ambani, for an alleged bank fraud that caused a loss of over Rs 2,000 crore to State Bank of India, officials said on Saturday. The agency is carrying out searches at the residence of Anil Ambani and premises linked to RCOM in connection with the case, they said.
The RBI on Wednesday slashed key interest rate by 25 basis points, for the second time in a row, to support a shuttering economy hit by reciprocal tariffs imposed by the US. Following the rate cut, the key policy rate eased to 6 per cent providing relief to home, auto and corporate loan borrowers.
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.
Reserve Bank on Tuesday cautioned public against "deepfake" videos of the governor being circulated on social media that claim the launch of or support to some investment schemes by the central bank. In a statement, the RBI cautioned public on "deepfake videos of Top Management" circulated over social media giving financial advice.
In a first, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it will conduct daily variable rate repo (VRR) auctions on all working days in Mumbai, until further notice. The daily auctions, aimed at easing the current liquidity tightness in the banking system, will begin on Friday, with a notified amount of Rs 50,000 crore.
Retail inflation slipped to seven-month low of 3.61 per cent in February mainly due to easing prices of vegetables, eggs, and other protein-rich items, creating space for the RBI to go for another cut in interest rate next month.
Private sector bank board members have urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) top brass to consider workload management of the boards as they feel there are too many issues that go to the boards for approval and the situation becomes unmanageable at times. The views were conveyed to the regulator on Monday in a conference of directors of private sector bank boards on the theme "Transformative Governance Through Sound Boards". RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, deputy governors Swaminathan J and M Rajeshwar Rao, and other senior officials of the central bank participated in the conference.
'This is an area where good lending can happen, and that is one of the priorities for the next quarter.'
Rashtrapati Bhavan has introduced a new initiative, the E-Upahaar auction, to monetise valuable assets for a social cause, in alignment with a broader governmental policy, championed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of auctioning gifts received by dignitaries to fund welfare programmes.
Reserve Bank on Wednesday cut India's growth forecast to 6.5 per cent from 6.7 per cent estimated earlier for the current financial year on account of impact of global trade and policy uncertainties. Prospects of agriculture sector remain bright on the back of healthy reservoir levels and robust crop production in 2025-26, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said while unveiling the outcome of the first bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee meeting for the current financial year.
India's forex reserves dropped by $9.32 billion to $688.87 billion for the week ended August 1 in one of the highest declines in the recent past, the RBI data showed on Friday. The overall reserves rose by $2.7 billion to $698.19 billion in the previous reporting week.
Towards the end of February, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) restored the risk weighting on banks loans to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs; including to microfinance institutions, or MFIs) to 100 - back to its November 2023 position - from 125. It is only a partial relief though. "Higher risk weighting on unsecured lending continues to be in place while the same on bank funding to NBFCs has been done away with. "This is a positive step by RBI," says Rajiv Sabharwal, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), Tata Capital.
State Bank of India, Adani Ports, Tata Consultancy Services, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and PowerGrid were also among the laggards.
The government on Monday appointed Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet cleared Malhotra's name, who has been appointed as the RBI Governor for three years, starting Wednesday. Malhotra, a 1990 Batch Rajasthan Cadre IAS Officer, will replace Shaktikanta Das, whose tenure ends on Tuesday (December 10, 2024).
Fitch Ratings on Wednesday raised India's GDP growth forecast to 6.9 per cent for current fiscal year, from 6.5 per cent earlier, citing strong June quarter growth and domestic consumption-led demand.
The transmission of the February and April rate cuts is now complete, validating the central bank's monetary stance and contributing to a revival in credit growth, said Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Friday. "We now have preliminary figures for June credit rates, and we find that for new loans, the rates are lower by at least 50 basis points (bps)... within two months of our 50-bp cut, we are in June, and the whole of the monetary policy transmission has happened.
Bengaluru police recovered Rs 14 lakh lost by BJP MP's wife in a cyber fraud through 'digital arrest'.
Wholesale price inflation (WPI) returned to the positive zone after two months at 0.52 per cent in August, as prices of food articles and manufactured items inched up, government data showed on Monday. WPI-based inflation was (-) 0.58 and (-) 0.19 per cent in July and June, respectively.
'The RBI's MPC will maintain the current policy rates (6.50%) at the policy meeting, given ongoing inflationary pressures.'
