India’s Tejaswin Shankar clinched victory in the men’s High Jump event at the USATF Festival in Tucson, Arizona, USA. The National record holder Tejaswin cleared 2.23 metres in his first attempt to secure the top spot at the World Athletics Continental Tour – Silver event. With this jump, he equaled his season-best effort.
REC Limited, a Maharatna Central Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Power and a leading NBFC, has received a ‘No Objection Certificate’ (dated May 3, 2024) from the Reserve Bank of India, for setting up a wholly owned subsidiary in International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), Gujarat International Finance Tec-City ("GIFT"), Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
The decision to expand operations into GIFT, a burgeoning hub for financial services in India, comes as REC continues to diversify its portfolio and explore new avenues for growth. The proposed subsidiary will engage in a range of financial activities as a finance company within GIFT, including lending, investment, and other financial services.
One97 Communications Limited (OCL), which owns the brand Paytm, announced the resignation of its President & Chief Operating Officer Bhavesh Gupta and his moving into an advisory role in the CEO office post May 31. OCL also announced the appointment of Rakesh Singh as the new Chief Executive Officer of Paytm Money Ltd (PML).
Varun Sridhar, former head of Paytm Money Ltd, now leads as CEO at Paytm Services Pvt Ltd (PSPL), which is into mutual fund distribution. OCL has reported movement to the TPAP model for UPI Payments and is now working with Yes Bank, Axis Bank, State of India and HDFC Bank.
Shares of ICICI Bank surged over 5% on Monday, sending its market capitalisation past the `8-trillion mark and into the league of the top five companies by market value. The private lender has become the second bank to cross this milestone, after HDFC Bank.
Reliance Industries maintains its position as the most-valued Indian company, boasting a market capitalisation of Rs 19.8 trillion, while software giant Tata Consultancy Services follows closely behind with a market cap of Rs 14 trillion. Among banks, HDFC Bank leads with a market capitalisation of Rs 11.6 trillion, State Bank of India has a market value of Rs 7.4 trillion
Neobanking startup Fi, backed by investors such as Peak XV and Temasek, has secured a non-banking finance company (NBFC) licence from the Reserve Bank of India, enabling it to provide loans from its own books. Fi has joined the likes of Jupiter, Groww and Cred, all of which got into the lending business either by getting a fresh licence or by acquiring another NBFC.
Requirement for NBFC License with RBI:
The applicant company shall be registered under Companies Act, 2013 or 1956
The applicant company should have a minimum net owned fund of ₹ 2 crores.
Procedure for Application to the RBI for NBFC License
The applicant company needs to be a company registered under the Companies Act, 2013 with a minimum paid up capital of Rs. 2 crores.
If the applicant is a foreign company, its minimum capital shall be Rs. 5 crores.
NBFCs lend and make investments and hence their activities are akin to that of banks; however there are a few differences as given below:
i. NBFC cannot accept demand deposits;
ii. NBFCs do not form part of the payment and settlement system and cannot issue cheques drawn on itself;
iii. deposit insurance facility of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation is not available to depositors of NBFCs, unlike in case of banks.
NBFCs whose asset size is of ₹ 500 cr or more as per last audited balance sheet are considered as systemically important NBFCs.
A wildlife biologist from Assam has been honoured with a leading UK wildlife charity award for her conservation efforts of the endangered Greater Adjutant Stork and its wetland habitat. She received it in recognition of her conservation of the stork known locally as “Hargila” in Assamese.
Dr Purnima Devi Barman won the GBP 1,00,000 Whitley Gold Award from the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), which supports grassroots conservation leaders from around the world, at a Royal Geographical Society awards ceremony in London.
The Gold Award from WFN noted how the numbers of the Hargila – translating as “bone-swallower” – had dwindled to an estimated 450 birds in Northeast India before Ms Barman's intervention. The Whitley Awards also celebrated six other grassroots conservationists – from Guyana, Papua New Guinea, Bhutan, Cameroon, Nepal and Brazil – for their locally-led solutions.
YES Bank has partnered with Bengaluru-based financial services provider, ANQ, to unveil two co-branded credit cards -- Pi and Phi.
The strategic partnership aims to bridge the gap between traditional banking and the fintech industry, offering innovative solutions to meet evolving consumer needs
The YES Bank-ANQ Pi credit card is a digital-only card that offers credit on UPI for domestic transactions, providing users with convenient and secure payment options. YES Bank is a full-service commercial bank headquartered in Mumbai. ANQ is a digital banking platform that harnesses the power of decentralised Finance (DeFi) to deliver next-generation financial services.
Palestinian journalists covering Gaza have been named winners of the 2024 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. The winners were chosen upon the recommendation of an international jury of media professionals. The UNESCO has recorded the deaths of 26 journalists, but the actual number could be much more.
The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Prize is given annually, as a “tribute to the courage of journalists facing difficult and dangerous circumstances,” according to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.
Girish Chandra Murmu, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Toyam Raya, Auditor General of Nepal.
The agreement aims to enhance collaboration and exchange of expertise in the field of auditing between the two countries’ Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs).
Through this MoU, a platform will be established for capacity development, knowledge exchange, and mutual assistance in conducting audits. The partnership between the SAIs of India and Nepal is expected to pave the way for enhanced collaboration in training programs, knowledge exchange, and assistance in audits.
India’s services exports decelerated in FY24 to a three-year low, with a modest increase of 4.9 per cent to $341.1 billion, data released by the Reserve Bank of India showed. net services exports grew at a robust pace of 13.6 per cent to $162.8 billion as services imports contracted 2 per cent to $178.3 billion during the financial year ended March 31.
In FY24, merchandise exports had contracted 3.2 per cent to $437.1 billion, leading to a trade deficit of $240.2 billion, data released by the commerce ministry last month showed. However, a robust services trade surplus is expected to narrow down the current account deficit (CAD) in FY24 to around 1 per cent of GDP.
The latest round of RBI’s survey of Professional Forecasters on Macroeconomic Indicators projects the CAD to GDP ratio at 1.2 per cent and 1.1 per cent for FY25 and FY26.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has revised the guidelines for custodian banks to issue Irrevocable Payment Commitments (IPCs) in light of the T+1 settlement regime for stocks. The maximum intraday risk to the custodian banks issuing IPCs would be considered as capital market exposure (CME) at 30 per cent of the settlement amount.
The limit of 30 per cent for risk is based on the assumption of a 20 per cent downward price movement of the equities on T+1, with an additional margin of 10 per cent for further downward movement of price. Earlier, the risk mitigation measures were prescribed based on T+2 rolling settlement for equities (T being the trade day).
Only custodian banks, who have an agreement with clients giving them an inalienable right over the securities for receiving a payout in the settlement, are permitted to issue IPCs. This clause will not be insisted upon if the transactions are pre-funded.
Under the T+1 settlement cycle, the exposure shall normally be intraday. However, if exposure remains outstanding at the end of T+1 Indian Standard Time, the bank will have to maintain capital based on the outstanding capital market exposure.
