The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is setting new standards for health insurance, mandating quicker and more efficient claim settlements to benefit policyholders. Effective immediately, insurers must make decisions on cashless authorization requests within one hour and finalize discharge authorizations within,
three hours of receiving the necessary requests from hospitals. This directive aims to streamline the claims process, ensuring policyholders aren’t delayed during medical emergencies.
Under these new rules, insurers are encouraged to achieve 100% cashless claim settlements, reducing the need for reimbursements to only exceptional circumstances. To facilitate this, insurers
Indian wrestler Sunil Kumar won the bronze medal in the 87kg Greco Roman bout of the Asian Championship in Jordan.
In the bronze medal match, Sunil beat China's Jiaxin Huang after losing in the semifinals of the 87kg bout in the continental tournament.
Sunil, a silver medallist in 2019 who is looking to regain some of his old magic, had earlier registered a 10-1 victory over Tajikistan's Sukhrob Abdulkhaev in the quarterfinal. He scored all of his points in the second period.
However, it was Iran's Yasin Yazdi who marched into the 87kg final with a 3-1 victory over Sunil in the semifinal clash.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has announced the acquisition of 100 per cent equity stake in Nauyaan Tradings Private Limited (NTPL) through its wholly owned subsidiary Reliance Strategic Business Ventures Limited (RSBVL). The transaction, valued at just Rs. 1 lakh, was completed with Welspun Tradings Limited, a subsidiary of Welspun Corp Limited (WCL).
With this acquisition, NTPL has become a step-down wholly owned subsidiary of RIL, effective immediately.
NTPL has also entered into a share purchase agreement with WCL to acquire a 74 per cent stake in Nauyaan Shipyard Private Limited (NSPL) for a total consideration of Rs. 382.73 crore. The deal is subject to adjustments related to expenses and net current assets.
India is the top producer of milk in the world and has set a target of producing 300 million metric tons (MMT) of milk in the next five years from the present 239 MMT, Union Minister of Animal Husbandry and Dairying Rajiv Ranjan Singh said.
Singh also said that ever since the Modi government has launched the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) in 2014,
the milk production in the country has increased by 63.5 per cent and the government is hopeful of further increasing it by 15 per cent in next three years.
"India is now the top milk producing country in the world. We have now set a target of producing 300 MMT of milk in next five years from the present 239 MMT," he said.
The minister said about 10 crore people in the country are engaged in milk production of which 75 per cent are women. He said the per person consumption of milk in India is 471 gram.
The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing Rashtriya Gokul Mission. It mains objective is development and conservation of indigenous breeds,
genetic upgradation of bovine population and enhancement of milk production and productivity of bovines thereby making milk production more remunerative to the farmers.
The scheme, launched in 2014, is continued under revised realigned schemes of the Department from 2021-2022 to 2025-2026.
IT services major Wipro announced that it has won a £500 million, 10-year strategic deal with Phoenix Group, the UK's largest long-term savings and retirement business. This will be one of the largest deals for the company as well as for the industry in a long time.
As part of this transformational initiative, a number of Phoenix employees will transition to Wipro.
The project is designed to deliver life and pension business administration for the ReAssure business and accelerate Phoenix Group’s operational transformation.
Under the terms of the deal, Wipro’s existing FCA-regulated entity, Wipro Financial Outsourcing Services Limited (WFOSL), will deliver comprehensive life and pension administration services to
Phoenix Group’s ReAssure customers. These services will encompass policy administration, claims processing, customer service support, data management and reporting, compliance and regulatory support, as well as platform technologies.
The government approved the appointment of former Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra as a full-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) in the rank of secretary.
During his tenure, ED got approval for the extradition of fugitives such as Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.
Sanjay Kumar Mishra was initially appointed as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief in 2018. He was given multiple extensions by the Centre.
Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) is an independent body constituted to give advice on economic and related issues to the Government of India, specifically to the Prime Minister.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have approved an increase in the ATM interchange fee for cash withdrawals from Rs 17 to Rs 19, with effect from May 1, 2025. The interchange has been revised for domestic financial and non-financial transactions Non-financial transactions are subject to an interchange fee of Rs7,
according to an NPCI circular dated March 13. A separate goods and services tax (GST) is levied on the interchange fee.
The revised interchange is not applicable for micro-ATM, interoperable cash deposit (card-based and UPI-based), and international ATM transactions. Such transactions will continue as per the existing rates.
The interchange fee for balance enquiries has been set at Rs 7 excluding GST for transactions in Nepal and Bhutan.
At present, there are 1,349 NFS members, up from 1,296 in February last year, according to NPCI data.
The volume of NFS-approved transactions stood at 315 million in February 2025, down 13.7 per cent from 365 million in February 2024.
As per the recent report, Bank of India has raised $400 million via a dollar
syndicated loan, marking its first such deal since 2012 that expands a list of
the country’s borrowers tapping global credit markets.
The rarity factor helped attract strong interest in the deal, allowing the borrower to increase the size by $100 million via the so-called greenshoe option, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing private matters. The facility drew a total of 22 lenders including arrangers CTBC Bank Co. and Standard Chartered Plc, the people said.
The loan is equally split into three- and five-year tranches, and raised via Bank of India’s branch located in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, said the people. A spokesperson for Bank of India declined to comment.
The deal is the latest sign of the growing appeal of Indian assets to global investors and lenders,
with the Asian nation’s bonds posting strong monthly inflows and stocks recuperating from a trillion dollar selloff. The return of confidence stems from improving economic indicators, the Indian central bank’s liquidity injections, and bets on an interest rate cut next month.
Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi signs MoU for collaborative research on medical devices on the 32nd Foundation Day of Department of NMR, AIIMS, New Delhi.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday allowed standalone primary dealers (SPDs) to participate in all repo operations, irrespective of the tenor, conducted by the central bank.
“On a review, it has now been decided to allow SPDs to participate in all repo operations, irrespective of the tenor, conducted by the Reserve Bank,” the RBI said in a notification.
Earlier, SPDs were permitted to participate in all overnight liquidity management operations, excluding the Marginal Standing Facility. Additionally, SPDs could participate in other operations, such as long-term Variable Rate Repo (VRR) operations and daily VRRs, on a case-by-case basis.
“There is a liquidity crunch, especially because this is March-end, and the deficit could be there going into the next financial year also. So, this only says liquidity can be more easily available for PDs,” said a dealer at a primary dealership.
The central bank also conducted longer-tenure VRRs in order to infuse durable liquidity in the banking system.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed monetary penalties on HDFC Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank for non-compliance with its regulatory guidelines, according to the press statement issued by the RBI. While HDFC Bank is slapped with a Rs. 75 lakh penalty for violations related to KYC norms,
Punjab & Sind Bank was fined Rs. 68.2 lakh for lapses in reporting large exposures and maintaining basic savings accounts.
Explaining the reasons behind the penalty on HDFC Bank, RBI said that it had conducted a statutory inspection of the bank with reference to its financial position as on March 31, 2023.
Based on supervisory findings of non-compliance with the central bank's directives, the RBI issued a notice to the bank advising it to show cause as to 'why penalty should not be imposed on it for its failure to comply with the said directions.'
One discrepancy was that the bank did not categorise certain customers into low,
medium or high risk categories based on its assessment and risk perception, which is mandatory as per the RBI directives.
Additionally, the bank allotted multiple customer identification codes to certain customers instead of a Unique Customer Identification Code (UCIC) for each customer, which is also a violation of RBI's directions.
In another order, RBI also imposed monetary penalty of Rs. 68.2 lakh on Punjab & Sind Bank for non-compliance with guidelines issued by the central bank on ‘Creation of a Central Repository of Large Common Exposures – Across Banks’ and ‘Financial Inclusion - Access to Banking Services – Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA)’.
Sunil Kakkar, who has been leading the corporate planning division at Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), has become the first homegrown Indian employee to be nominated to the company's board as a whole-time director. The nomination was made on Wednesday by MSIL’s majority shareholder, Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC).
MSIL’s board currently comprises 11 members—five Indians and six Japanese. Among the Indian members, four are independent directors, while chairman R C Bhargava is the fifth. With Kakkar’s addition, the board will now have equal representation of six Indians and six Japanese.
Kakkar's tenure as whole-time director will be from April 1 this year to March 31, 2028.
Bandhan Bank announced that it has executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Air Force (IAF) to provide Bandhan Bank Shaurya Salary Account, a Corporate Salary account specially designed for defence personnel. IAF personnel can avail a host of exclusive benefits like a Zero Balance savings account, protection for self and family,
and attractive interest rates amongst others from more than 1700 branches of Bandhan Bank.
The collaboration with IAF for the Shaurya Salary Account is in addition to the Bank being a SPARSH Service Centre to the Defence personnel where the Bank partnered with the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA),
to establish SPARSH Service Centres for providing services to Defence pensioners and their families through 557 designated branches.
The Reserve Bank of India has appointed the Bandhan Bank as an Agency Bank and has been authorised by the Central Boards of Direct Taxes and Indirect Taxes for collections of taxes, and disbursement of Central Civil Pension and among others.
