..............While there is meant to be a Public Distribution System ( PDS) in place, it is common knowledge that the urban poor are just not able to access PDS supplies, as the goods are inedible or not available. For adopting best practices among the states, the 13th Finance Commission has already institutionalised this and set up a Centre for Innovative Practices in States (CIPS) within the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad. While supply side measures are important in controlling food inflation, generalised inflation needs effective monetary policy action. As such, the government should not be overarching on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to prematurely ease monetary policy.............
The very purpose of VITALINFO is to provide a platform for wider dissemination of updated information related to and happening of events in and around RBI.
Monday, June 16, 2014
A potential jobs breakthrough - Dr.Subir Gokarn
............Several analysts, including myself, have been crying themselves hoarse about the importance of this reform. Flexible labour contracts are typically associated with faster employment growth. One can cite cross-country evidence in favour of this proposition, but why go that far? In our own context, the much faster growth in employment in the services sector compared with manufacturing is directly attributable to the fact that the former does not have to deal with the same job security mandates as the latter. The ability to................
Appetite for Profit: The pathway for profit - Yerram Raju
.....Banking basically is about people – whether customers, clients or staff. Money spills through these three categories with systems connecting them. Products are created to take money and give money. Risk perceptions underwent a thorough change with the onset of recession in 2008 and its shadow is still hanging. While Banks in India and emerging economies in general have embraced the precautions set against the west-led recession in the financial sector, they did not indulge in the luxuries that enveloped those developed nations. The known unknowns – credit risk, and the unknown unknowns – market risk, are on the increase despite ............
Local address proof no longer a hurdle for unbanked Indians
..............RBI’s waiver has removed a big hurdle in the path to opening a bank account for a large section of population that can be characterized as carrying out “low value, low risk” transactions—a category of individuals who would previously have been excluded due to KYC or AML compliance requirements placed on banks. In conjunction with a national unique identity repository, it will become possible to authenticate transactions on a real-time basis, thereby obviating the need for knowing the current location of a customer. Some would argue that..........................
Stalemate in Negotiations - Great Strategy of UFBU for Delaying Tactics
......Frankly speaking IBA has not given commitment on any of issues relating to 100% DA for all pensioners and improvement in family pension; and appointments on compassionate grounds. However, as per UFBU version IBA is favourably inclined to consider demand of extending 100% DA for all pensioners. IBA also seems to have shown positive response to improvement in Family Pension. However, UFBU still needs to do lot of work as IBA has not committed anything and only shown positive response. Thus,.........
Rajan serious about his job
My View on "Why Raghuram Rajan matters":
In my article on future of RBI Governor Dr Raghuram Rajan post-May 16, 2014 posted at moneylife.in during March 2014 I had observed:
“It has to be said to the credit of Government of India (GOI) that, even if it was in self-interest, generally, compared to other statutory bodies and public sector units (PSUs) the RBI has been getting a fair deal in selection and timely appointment of its head and his deputies. The appointment process in July-August 2013 was more transparent and at that time, all had accepted that among the candidates considered, the most meritorious had been selected.” to support my comment that to re-emphasize that “…the present RBI Governor has taken his present job seriously and any talk about de-stabilizing his position post-16th May can do harm to Indian economy, but may not have much impact on his pursuit of the objectives he cherish.”
- M.G.Warrier
Midnight toil?
Former RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty is always in demand because he speaks his mind. At the launch of a book on the Sahara group, he was in his elements. He said a couple of things in the book came to him as a revelation. For instance, he went on, “There are references to some people working till midnight at the RBI. I never knew about this!
HBL
Mundra likely to be next RBI Deputy Governor
After throwing his weight behind Dalbir Singh Suhag as the next army chief, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has endorsed another choice of the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, by approving the name of Bank of Baroda chairman S S Mundra as a next deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)..................
Rana Kapoor set to be re-appointed as MD & CEO of YES Bank
YES Bank’s shareholders, at their annual general meeting on Saturday, approved the official resolution on re-appointment of Rana Kapoor as managing director and chief executive officer, along with other directors, sources told Business Standard. The voting results were concluded on Sunday and will be sent to the exchanges on Monday morning. YES Bank could not be reached for comment.............
SBI to organise banking and economics conclave on Jun 17
Country's largest lender State Bank of India is organising a national level banking conclave for the first time by bringing together Reserve Bank of India and stakeholders to a common platform in order to discuss state of the economy and the banking sector. 'The Banking and Economics Conclave 2014' will be inaugurated by Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan in the country's financial capital here on Tuesday..........
Growth and inflation
.............Against this backdrop, the government's prioritisation of its fight against inflation is an extremely important development. It has to move quickly from intent to action on a variety of reforms, from procurement policy to subsidies and to investment in rural infrastructure. Many of these will generate benefits only over the medium term. So those expecting a growth stimulus from the Reserve Bank of India any time soon are bound to be in for a disappointment. Even so, room for optimism should come from the fact that ........
Raining on animal spirits
.................The new government may well be wondering if luck will run in its favour as it tries to revive the animal spirits in an economy, which has been in stagflationary mode for over two years. The monsoon is playing hide-and-seek and the latest El Nino-related news is not good. Rainfall predictions were cut last week - the monsoon will be below normal, given a 70 per cent probability of El Nino patterns. A poor monsoon would lead to inflationary pressures on the food front. Since food has a huge weight (about 48 per cent) in the consumer price index (CPI), it would push retail inflation up. That would mean the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) refusing to cut policy rates...............
To take credit, MLA comes up with misleading advertisements
......Lured by the advertisement, some depositors and farmers rushed to the bank to get their money back, only to return empty-handed.their invested and deposit amount, when the bank administration refused about such fund saying that the amount is not received yet. While after getting this fund bank can get permission for banking, which is banned by RBI since..............
PMO seeks NPA details of Govt banks
.............. “NPAs formed one of the key talking points in the meeting of the prime minister with the secretaries of various ministries he held earlier this month. The two things that the PMO has desired to know are action taken in the last five years on the bad debt front and the reason for the bulge.” Economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram has been asked to revert with details. According to senior finance ministry officials top on the agenda was a quick recapitalisation drive and granting of functional freedom to bank chairmen.............
The best deposits for senior citizens
With the interest rate cycle set to turn sooner rather than later, this is an opportune time to invest in bank deposits that offer good rates. Such deposits also suit the investment needs of senior citizens well, considering that safety is their top priority. Rates for investors above 60 years of age are 30-50 basis points higher than the regular rates, giving seniors an added incentive to park their money in FDs. For many banks, differential rates apply .........
IDFC Bank to be operational by October next year
Infrastructure finance company IDFC, which recently bagged a commercial banking licence, plans to start bank operations by October next year. "It (IDFC Bank) should be operational by October 2015," IDFC Chairman Rajiv Lall told.....
Good times ahead for banking?
....If one takes a close look at the data on bad assets, one is not convinced as yet that the good days are here but it seems that the worst is behind us. Collectively, the gross bad assets of 40 listed Indian banks have grown about 51% in 2013-14 that ended in March—from Rs.1.6 trillion to Rs.2.42 trillion—but in the last quarter, their bad assets actually dropped by 0.61%. Similarly, the net bad assets of these banks, after setting.......
SBI to Hire 7,200 People, Increase Reliance on Tech
............“I am trying to get a lot of technology to help my people so that they spend less of their time on activities that don't really need a lot of thinking and knowledge. For routine stuff such as cash-counting, we are bringing more and more machines,“ said SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, adding that SBI should be able to manage with the number of people it planned to hire during 2014-15...............
Need To Fix India's Banking Sector Woes To Revive Economy - Analysis
.....The Indian banking sector is dominated by PSBs, which account for 73 per cent of the market share. The banks are constrained by excessive regulation and are forced to increase their exposure to credit constrained sectors. For instance, priority sector lending norms is one of the many stipulations imposed on PSBs by the RBI that erode their competitiveness. On an average, these priority sector loans have been responsible for a relatively higher share of the NPAs among the PSBs over the last ten years. Moreover, these banks have been found to have...........
CII action plan for reviving non-banking finance sector
......."The non-banking financial company (NBFC) sector needs to be integrated to the core of Indian financial system with adequate policy support to help meet the financing needs of the economy and achieve financial inclusion," CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said...........
Now’s the time to prepay your loan
In April, the Reserve Bank of India directed banks not to charge customers for pre-closing term loans taken on a ‘floating rate’ basis. Until this order, banks charged a foreclosure penalty of 3-4 per cent of the outstanding loan amount. Now, you might be looking for that catch in the fine print or you may simply be wary of switching your loan to a cheaper lender. Read on to clear some of those lingering doubts.........
Indian Currency – Paper to Polymer
...........According to National Investigation Agency (NIA), it will a very challenging task for RBI to remove or stop the circulation of fake notes. Due to such problems, the economy of the country can face danger. Counterfeit notes adds onto the banknotes which are already printed by the government. With faster printing of money than the growth of real output, the value of money will be reduced which causes inflation. Moreover, governments prefers to print money when they are unable to finance the borrowings they have. Counterfeiting leads to introduction of more fake notes in the system. This effect of inflation thus leads to hyperinflation of the economy which ..............
E-eye helps South Indian Bank foil yet another ATM loot bid
.....This is the latest in the series of events in which the Thrissur-based bank has foiled attempted burglary at its ATMs through effective e-surveillance.......
Talking ATMs
.....The cards to be used at these ATMs are the same as those issued by banks currently. The machines, however, are different. Talking ATMs are designed according to “access to all” standards, which means that the keypads of the ATM should be at a height that’s easily accessible by someone who is wheelchair-bound, there should be ramps, provision for a headphone, voice guidance technology should be enabled and available in multiple languages, and there should be Braille stickers for visually challenged users..........
18 banks fail to meet ATM setting target
.............As part of the target, a total of 34,668 onsite ATMs were to be installed by PSU banks during the last fiscal. However, they could set up only 25,331 such machines by March 2014, thus falling short by 9,337, as per Finance Ministry data. Installation of ATMs, especially by public sector lenders, has been a major priority for the government's efforts to ensure financial inclusion in the country...........
Are additional charges justified?
As per point 4 of the RBI notification dated September 25th, 2013, it is unjustifiable on the merchant’s part to charge customers for buying goods and services as it is not permissible as per the agreement between the merchant and the bank which issued the POS (Point of sale) terminal or card swipe machine to the merchant. Such practices call for the banks to terminate their relationship with such merchants...............
E-filing woes
...........We are in the middle of June and the filing deadline is July 31 but most of the e-filing forms are yet to be notified. The Budget was passed for the assessment year 2014-15 as early as March 2013. Why does it take such a long time to upload the e-forms on the income tax website?..............
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)