The PM CARES Fund experienced a 30 per cent decrease in domestic donations and an 18 per cent drop in foreign contributions during the fiscal year 2024-2025. Despite this, the total balance in the fund increased to Rs 8,452 crore, primarily held in fixed deposits and savings accounts. The fund's expenditure on the PM CARES for Children Scheme also saw a sharp reduction.
Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), has called for the PM CARES Fund, which holds over Rs 8,452 crore, to be used to improve infrastructure in rural schools and build more than 1,000 new high-tech schools, highlighting the dire conditions faced by children.
A sophisticated cross-bank syndicate is systematically defrauding non-resident Indians (NRIs) and elderly citizens by exploiting their fixed deposits through forged documents and fictitious loans, often involving colluding bank employees and real estate deals.
rediffGURU Vipul Bhavsar answers readers' personal income tax queries
The CBI has registered a corruption case against Rajni Kant Agrawal, the former chairman-cum-managing director of Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS), following a complaint from the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
A special audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has revealed that Odisha's forest and environment department sidestepped central guidelines, procuring and customising Mahindra Thar SUVs worth 17 crore from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for forest protection, despite the funds being earmarked for 'preparedness and capacity building'.
The government is planning a postal logistics infrastructure upgrade for India Post to modernise parcel facilities, aligning them with those in developed nations, according to Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
The new UPI IDs will follow formats such as abc.bkr@validhdfc or xyz.mf@validhdfc. For easier recognition, they will also carry a white 'thumbs up' icon inside a green triangle.
Given that a sizeable part of this money is part of the coveted current accounts and savings accounts, it is surprising that banks are not in a hurry to revive these accounts, notes Tamal Bandyopdhyay.
ICICI Bank has cut its savings account deposit interest rate by 0.25 per cent, according to the lender's website. The second largest private sector bank's move comes days after larger rival HDFC Bank announced similar move amid a spate of cuts in deposit offerings following RBI's two back-to-back rate decreases.
Cross-check key documents, maximise your deductions, avoid errors, and ensure you get your refund smoothly.
State-owned banks have received guidance from the government to close Jan Dhan accounts whose beneficiaries are unwilling to keep them active, amid rising instances of such accounts being misused by fraudsters as mule accounts to defraud people, people aware of the development said.
UPI has catapulted India into the forefront on the global digital payments landscape. Working hand in hand, the AePS payments system is making life easy for rural folks, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Errors in filing income-tax returns frequently lead to scrutiny notices, additional liabilities, or delayed refunds.
'Now we have one of the best asset qualities in the industry.'
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Nitin Narkhede your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Rate has remained at 3.5 per cent since March 2003.
While freeing interest rates on savings bank accounts, the RBI has said that banks will have to offer a uniform interest rate on deposits of up to Rs 100,000.
The case for deregulation of the savings bank deposit rate by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is becoming stronger day by day. It is time India returned to a system favoured by most modern economies around the world.
India's lack of financial inclusion is well known but that slightly more than 50 per cent of the population just has a simple savings bank account is distressing.
After launching the ATM service at Thiyagaraya Nagar Head Post Office, Chidambaram said that Rs 4,909 crore had been allocated for the IT modernisation of Department of Posts in the interim budget for 2014-15.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
The RBI on Wednesday barred Paytm Payments Bank Ltd from accepting deposits or top-ups in any customer account, prepaid instruments, wallets, and FASTags, among others after February 29, 2024.
The cost of deposits is on the rise, but banks can't raise interest rate on close to 60% of their loan books, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Ask rediffGURU and tax expert Mihir Tanna your income tax-related questions.
Fintech firm One97 Communications, which owns the Paytm brand, has received support from merchants, and it assured them of continuity of services without any disruption, the company said in a blog on Sunday. The blog post came amid the recent crisis around Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL), an associate company of Paytm, which has been barred by the RBI from accepting deposits or top-ups in customer accounts, wallets, FASTags and other instruments after February 29.
These schemes are a good choice for investors contemplating a large investment in equity funds. Instead of investing all the money in one go, they can do so in a staggered manner by parking it in these schemes and then transferring it to equity mutual funds through a systematic transfer plan.
Every banker loves the four-letter word Casa as it plays an important role in lowering the cost of deposits. Every bank wants to increase its Casa, as a higher portion of Casa in the overall deposit liability brings down its cost of money, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
There are various ways of reducing transaction costs by banks.
'Liquid ETFs help in cash management by enabling a smooth transition between equity and cash within the same settlement cycle, as they trade in the same segment as equity.'
>It's not easy to predict the market. But there are at least two positive factors to back the PSU banks, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Business success often involves a combination of planning, implementation, and continuous learning, says rediffGURU Harsh Bharwani.
Nearly two million postcards and eight million letters pass through India's post offices daily.
The initiative will neither help banks nor borrowers since the cost of funds will rise, but it will provide greater scope for product innovation and service excellence.
This is not a new or unknown problem, but every time it crops up, our policy-makers have tried to wish it away. In the present circumstances too, the government has stopgap arrangements. It is borrowing from the World Bank (that's window-dressing fiscal deficit), says Ajit Ranade.
The country's largest lender SBI on Saturday reported a 9.13 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 16,099.58 crore for the September quarter, weighed down by money it had to set aside for employees' impending wage and pension revisions. On a standalone basis, the State Bank of India (SBI) had a 8.03 per cent increase in the profit after tax for the reporting quarter at Rs 14,330 crore. However, the same was down 15.13 per cent compared to Rs 16,884 crore in the June quarter.
The Rs 2,000 note withdrawal decision and response to it so far suggest that the move can help boost FY24 GDP growth to beyond 6.5 per cent estimated by the RBI, a report said on Monday. The real GDP growth for the first quarter of FY24 will come at 8.1 per cent with an upward bias and the Reserve Bank of India's 6.5 per cent estimate can also be exceeded, economists at the country's largest lender SBI said. "We expect Q1 FY24 GDP growth at 8.1 per cent with an upward bias due to the impact of Rs 2000 note withdrawal event...this reinforces our projection that FY24 GDP could be higher than 6.5 per cent, basis the RBI estimate," a note said.
Debit card payments remained sluggish due to the surge in digital transactions after the pandemic, and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has emerged as the most popular mode of money transfer, particularly for small value transactions, according to RBI data. In July 2020, the total debit card spends stood at Rs 2.81 trillion, as compared to Rs 3.15 trillion in July 2023, reflecting a growth of 11.96 per cent. UPI spends have seen a whopping growth of 428 per cent, zooming from Rs 2.90 trillion to Rs 15.33 trillion during the same period, the data revealed.
The Western Railway tonight said it has digitally transferred Rs 10 lakh in the savings bank account of the victim's wife.
rediffGURU and financial planning expert Colonel Sanjeev Govila (retd) will answer your personal finance-related questions.
