George Mathew

The last financial year was also the worst for the sector as banks were forced to stop evergreening of bad loans and go for NPA recognition amid huge losses to their government securities portfolio following the rise in bond yields.

In the past, too, many mergers in the banking sector have been forced ones. The SBI is seen as a candidate given its size and strength to take over any troubled banks if its principal shareholder does have its way down the line.

There’s greater realisation now. One is about the borrowing itself. I think the days of over leveraging and thin equity are over, says Rajnish Kumar

The RBI may also have taken into account the fact that many other central banks in emerging markets too have raised rates in the face of rising inflation and weakening of their currencies with rising interest rates in the US and elsewhere, a strong US dollar and outflows.

Through the first increase in repo rate since the NDA came to power four years ago, the Reserve Bank has underlined the upside risk to inflation projections, and reiterated its mandate to check rising prices.

While the MPC is likely to maintain the repo rate at 6 per cent on June 6, there’s a 40 per cent probability that the MPC will pre-emptively hike rates by 25 bps in the June policy meeting, analysts said.

On May 30, the bank stated in a regulatory filing that its board has decided to institute an “enquiry” into a new complaint received from an anonymous whistleblower, alleging non-adherence of code of conduct, conflict of interest and quid pro quo by Kochhar while dealing “with certain borrowers”.

In a directive to the Managing Directors of general insurance companies on May 30, the Ministry had said: “It must be ensured that no third-party insurance policy is issued or renewed without ascertaining the availability of a valid PUC."

It’s double whammy as their banks’ gross non-performing assets (NPAs) have shot up 46.70 per cent to Rs 8,40,868 crore as of March 2018 with the recent Reserve Bank circular scrapping loan recast schemes adding to the woes.

Rs 29,343 cr of Rs 2.72L cr written off bad loans recovered; Bhushan Steel only resolution so far in RBI list of 12 large NPAs

Importers are hit, exporters have gained; foreign holidays and education abroad are costlier. With international crude prices rising and India’s trade deficit widening, the economy is badly impacted.

Among private banks, ICICI Bank, whose MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar is facing allegations of conflict of interest while sanctioning loans to the Videocon Group, topped the NPA table with Rs 54,063 crore in bad  loans.

The search for CMDs is an indication that the merger of these insurers (NIA, UII and Oriental Insurance) is unlikely to happen in the current financial year.

The rupee has fallen 3.8 per cent in the current financial year with the dollar exchange rate dropping from 65 to 68.07 from March 28, 2018 to May 15, 2018.

Peter Moore, Managing Director (Worldwide public sector, Asia Pacific and Japan), Amazon Web Services (AWS), said: “We’re investing every month into additional capabilities. Every month we’re hiring more people.”

In other words, while farm credit in Maharashtra has gone up, other states like UP and Tamil Nadu witnessed more credit disbursals to farmers.

The deal will also will effectively consolidate the Indian retail sector into a two-player market – Amazon and Walmart -- and the ensuing balance sheet strength will drive investments in infrastructure, especially in sourcing and logistics.

Hemendra Kothari says the growth in the mutual fund industry in the next two years will be higher than in the last two years.

Debt servicing unlikely to cause state any problem as its debt to GSDP ratio is low.