Someone like me would make an ideal bitcoin enthusiast – libertarian by political persuasion, open source enthusiast, early adopter of all kinds of technologies, hater of big government and possessor of what my wife calls a ‘mildly paranoid personality’. Yet, try as I might, I just can’t see bitcoin as anything other than the most […]
Reliance Industries, one of India’s biggest conglomerates, said it has become debt free on a net basis, meaning that it now owes less money to its creditors than it stands to receive from its debtors. This, it said, is thanks largely to the Rs 1.16 lakh cr that it has raised for a range of […]
Operating conditions for Indian non-banking financial companies/institutions (NBFCs or NBFIs) have improved slightly in the first two months of 2020, however, uncertainty levels continue to be high for certain segments within the sector such as housing finance and wholesale lending, global ratings agency Fitch said in a note today. “The recent fundraising by a number […]
ICICI Bank, one of India’s top three lenders, has emerged as the No.1 target of bank fraudsters last year in terms of the sheer number of such incidents, overtaking bigger rival State Bank of India. ICICI Bank reported 374 medium and large sized incidents of fraud, beating back SBI, which came in with 338 such […]
Finance ministry on Thursday gave detailed numbers to detail the efforts that the Narendra Modi government has been making to overcome the problems created by corruption and bad loans in India’s public sector banks. Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman pointed out that a review in 2015 found that a huge chunk of loans issued in previous […]
Brickwork Ratings has downgraded the credit rating of India’s largest telecom operator by subscribers, Vodafone Idea, due to the sharp shrinkage seen in the company’s user base in the last six months. The company’s subscriber base has fallen by a whopping 21% between September last year and March this year, going from 42.23 cr (422 […]
Singapore-based investment management company Manulife has bought a 49% stake in the asset management arm of Mahindra Finance, marking yet another collaboration between an Indian financial company and a foreign asset management company for operations in India. The transaction has been structured as an investment of $34.9 million, or about Rs 2,000 cr, into the […]
lnduslnd Bank said it will give effect to its take over of Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited — formerly known as SKS Microfinance Limited — on July 4. The private sector bank said it received the approval of National Companies Law Tribunal or NCLT last Thursday. With the merger, “all the assets and liabilities of Bharat […]
Wipro Ltd said it has helped deploy a new information technology system to kick off the digitization of the currency in Thailand. The achievement marks a small, but crucial step in what many consider the inevitable evolution of money into a more convenient digital format. DIGITAL PAYMENT vs BLOCKCHAIN At present, digital money is handled […]
Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom subsidiary of Reliance Industries, said it will take a loan of $1 bln from Korea Trade Insurance Corporation to purchase goods from Korean companies Samsung and Ace Technologies. “The Facility is K-SURE’s largest deal in India as well as the largest deal supported by K-SURE in the telecom sector globally,” […]
The government of India has blamed a sudden spurt in currency demand, to the tune of Rs 45,000 cr in 13 days, for the ongoing cash crunch reflected in ‘dry’ ATMs in many parts of the country. In a statement, the finance ministry said the sudden demand has come from the states of Andhra Pradesh, […]
AU Small Finance Bank, which was formed a little over two years ago, said it has started offering interest of 6.5% for its savings account holders with balance above Rs 1 lakh. This makes the bank the only one to offer such a high interest rate on its savings account. The bank was earlier giving […]
Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd said it abandoned the deal to acquire the securities business of Religare Enterprises, including the company’s securities and commodities broking and depository participant services. “Due to the seller’s inability to obtain the requisite clearances within the agreed timeline, the binding agreement has come to an end on March 15, 2018,” Edelweiss […]
Preparations for the commencement of operations of India Post Payments Bank, scheduled for next month, is in the final stages, communications minister Manoj Sinha said, adding that one branch will be opened nearly all districts of India. “The preparatory works for roll out of 650 branches including the civil, electrical, branding and furniture are in […]
The following is the full text of Arun Jaitley’s speech on the Union Budget for 2018-19. The major highlight of the budget in terms of taxation was the imposition of a 10% tax on long-term gains from equity investments. “Madam, four years ago, we pledged to the people of India to give this nation an […]
Public sector banks would need to divert an estimated Rs 63,000 cr, or about 41% of the total money that the government has promised, to meet increased provisioning requirements for loans under the new Ind-AS accounting standard, India Ratings said, adding that this would ‘knock down’ their growth aspirations and hurt market share. Provisioning refers […]
Every few months, there is a new rumor surrounding Reliance Jio, the 4G operator that has taken the country by storm. A year ago, it was Jio DTH, which was supposed to put other DTH operators out of business, and now, it’s Jiocoin, which is supposed to put virtual currencies like Bitcoin on notice. According […]
Tata Consultancy Services said it will take over the policy administration and customer service functions of US insurer Transamerica along with 2,200 of its employees in a $2 bln-plus, multi-year deal. The Indian company will migrate the administration of over 10 mln insurance policies on to its BaNCS platform and provide ‘third party administration’ or […]
The Reserve Bank of India has released the list of Indian banks and their non-performing assets as of September 30, 2017, the latest period for which financial data is available. The total non-peforming assets, or bad loans, has risen to 8.37 lakh cr — a burden of around 20,000 for each working person in the […]
The pace of bad industrial debt written off by public sector banks in India increased substantially this year, according to RBI data. In the first six months of the financial year (April to September), public sector banks wrote off 36,510 cr of bad industrial debt, compared to only 2,369 cr of agricultural debt. If the […]
