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On 1st of February, Finance Minister  Nirmala Sitharaman  will present the Union Budget for Financial Year 2020-21. It will be the first full Budget of Narendra Modi's second term as Prime Minister. The economy was in the news for most of last year, not for positive reasons. Every Budget presents challenges to the government, but some are more challenging than others. This Budget comes at a particularly difficult time for the Indian economy and is keenly awaited to see how the government will try to defeat the economic challenges that face the country.What will be the biggest challenges facing the finance minister in the Budget? How will the Budget tackle the jobs crisis? Can the government spend its way out of trouble? And what is going in favour of the government?A K Bhattacharya answers these questions and more in this Business Standard special podcast. Here you can also read Budget2020 News

The government in the upcoming budget should create a Rs 10,000-crore fund to complete stalled real estate projects across the country and provide relief to over 500,000 people who have booked properties, according to home buyers' body FPCE. Budget2019 In its budget recommendation to the finance minister, Forum For People's Collective Efforts (FPCE), earlier knows as Fight for RERA, also demanded that home buyers should be categorised as primary secured creditors. "You are aware there are over five lakh home buyers whose hard earned life savings are stuck in different real estate projects across the country due to indefinite delay and fund diversion by builders," FPCE President Abhay Upadhyay said and pitched for the creation of a stress fund to end the mental and financial stress of these home buyers. The memorandum further noted that "despite RERA (realty law), most of the ongoing projects have not been completed. It is time now to end this problem by...

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) how Google's mobile payment app, GPay, was facilitating financial transactions without the requisite authorisation from it. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A J Bhambhani posed the query to RBI while hearing a PIL which claimed that GPay was acting as a payments system provider in violation of the Payments and Settlements Act as it has no valid authorisation from the central bank of the country to carry out such functions. The court issued notice to RBI and Google India seeking their stand on the issue raised in the plea by Abhijit Mishra, who has contended that GPay does not figure in RBI's list of authorised 'payment systems operators' released by the central bank on March 20, 2019. Read Complete Article

Axis Bank Share India’s third largest private sector bank Axis Bank on Tuesday said it would soon be able to process payments over the popular chatting application ‘WhatsApp’. The bank also termed the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) as a “huge opportunity”. “ We are the market leaders in terms of innovation, and we do believe that UPI is a huge opportunity. We are working in terms of creating a differentiated environment for our customers,” Axis Bank Executive Director -Retail Banking, Rajiv Anand said. Click Here To know More – Axis Share Price 

Banks are tapping the bond market to shore up capital adequacy under Basel-III norms ahead of the end of the financial year second quarter in two weeks. Two public sector lenders, United Bank of India and Bank of India (BOI), are raising up to Rs 1,500 crore through tier-I and tier-II bonds. Kolkata-based United Bank of India is raising up to Rs 1,000 crore through the bonds (Rs 500 crore in each tier). Bank of India is raising up to Rs 500 crore via Tier-I bonds. Both banks are facing elevated pressure on asset quality and profitability. They have to set aside higher amounts as provision for bad loans, as growth in interest income tapers due to tepid credit demand. CRISIL has assigned “BBB+” rating to United Bank’s Rs 500-crore Tier-I bonds and “AA-/Negative” rating to the Tier-II bonds. The outlook on both the instruments is negative on account of weakness in the bank’s asset quality and profitability. The ratings continue to reflect strong expectation of support fro...

IndusInd Bank Ltd has entered into exclusive talks to acquire microlender Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd, in a deal that will help the private sector bank to expand its consumer business. IndusInd and Bharat Financial have entered into exclusive talks for a potential strategic combination, both sides said in separate statements on Monday, without providing details on what a potential deal would look like or how long they would pursue the talks. The two financial firms had long been speculated to be interested in a deal, with analysts saying previously it could come in the form of a share swap. IndusInd Bank is India's sixth-largest private sector lender by assets and has a market value of about $16 billion, while Bharat Financial Inclusion, formerly known as SKS Microfinance Ltd, is valued at more than $2 billion. "Of late (IndusInd Bank) has been talking about increasing the proportion of their consumer business. This deal would help it achieve that,"...

The country's second largest telecom player Vodafone expects Jio's 'effective free phone' with unlimited calling to erode operators' revenues which are already under pressure and sought reduction in various levies imposed by the government as a breather to the industry. "...The new operator continues to aggressively under- price its services, including announcing launch of 'Effective Zero Price Feature Phone' with unlimited voice. "This is likely to cause further erosion in revenue for existing operators," the company in a letter to the Telecom Commission Member (Finance) Anuradha Mitra. RIL Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani recently launched JioPhone, a 4G feature phone at a one-time fully refundable deposit of Rs 1,500 per unit. Jio has slated to beta-test the low-cost phone from August 15. The booking will start from September 24 online as well as through Reliance Retail and Jio stores. Vodafone said there is a continuous d...

The finance ministry is expected to initiate the process of consolidation of public sector banks (PSBs) once the first quarter results of the current fiscal have been announced, a senior official has said. There are various things including financial performance which have to be looked at before a merger decision is taken, said the official at the ministry. There are factors like regional balance, geographical reach, financial burden and smooth human resource transition that have to be looked into while taking a merger decision, the official said, adding that there should not be merger of a very weak bank with a strong one as it could pull the latter down. "So, it is going to be a complex exercise. Let the June- quarter numbers of all banks be finalised first, then there could be some action on this front," said the official, who did not want to be identified. The finance ministry had called few banks including Dena Bank some months ago to get a sense fro...

Since the beginning of the financial year, banks have been increasing their charges for the services they offer at the branch, especially for cash deposits and withdrawals. Most banks now also charge a fee for payment of credit card bill made in cash at a branch. By thus punishing customers for credit card bill payments made through cheques, they are forcing them to pay this bill via electronic modes. State Bank of India (SBI) has started levying a charge of Rs 100 on payments below Rs 2,000 made by cheque to settle credit card bills. Since SBI is the country’s largest bank, many credit card users are worried that other banks could also follow suit. After banks started levying charges on cash payments to settle credit card bills, there has been a drastic fall in such transactions. On a credit card bill of below Rs 2,000, a charge of Rs 100 is significant — five per cent. The lower a cardholder’s bill, higher is the impact. For such customers, shifting online to make this paym...

The process of resolution of bad loans will start shortly, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday in the Lok Sabha as it passed a bill which gives RBI the power to direct banking companies to resolve the problem of stressed assets. Replying to a debate on the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2017, Jaitley said the Reserve Bank has already identified top 12 loan defaulters and more cases will be taken up by them for resolution. "No one can claim the right of equality in not paying banks back. RBI has taken up some difficult cases... I am sure they will take up more," Jaitley said. The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2017, seeks to amend the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and replace the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, which was promulgated in May this year. The bill was later passed by the Lok Sabha by a voice vote. Winding up the debate on the bill, Jaitley said some laws were outdated and were acting as "impediment...

Former Reserve Bank of India governor C Rangarajan says 'some haircut' is inevitable in the process of resolving the big load of bad loans at government-owned banks. A haircut is the term for the writeoff a lender accepts on a debt payment when a borrower can't repay what is due at a point in time. Needed here, said Rangarjan, since the size of non-perofrming accounts (NPAs) had become so big. "The clean-up has to be done and perhaps some haircut is inevitable. The question is whether the banks are ready for a haircut and how that is managed. The best result is with the haircut, the loan should once again become good," said Rangarajan, also chairman of the prime minister's economic advisory council in the earlier government. NPA resolution was important, he said, to stimulate the economy and investments. He felt the process, if decided on, would take at least a year to complete. NPAs at public sector banks (PSBs) have mounted to a little over Rs 6...

State Bank of India’s (SBI’s) executive committee of the central board has given the final approval for divestment of 80 million shares in SBI Life through an initial public offering (IPO), at a meeting on Monday. The shares being offered for sale by the country’s biggest lender will be available at a price that would be fixed and determined by SBI Life, SBI, and BNP Paribas Cardiff, in consultation with the book-running lead managers, the lender said in a statement to the BSE. Last week, SBI Life had submitted its draft papers to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) for listing, which has been approved in principle by the regulator. It is still awaiting final approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Reserve Bank of India and the Government of India. SBI Life will become the country’s second private insurer to go for an IPO after ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, which was valued at Rs 48,000 crore and sold shares worth...

The Prime Minister's Office today held a stock taking meeting with senior officials of the ministries of finance and corporate affairs to review the progress in resolution of NPAs in the light of recent action taken by the Reserve Bank on stressed assets. Prime Minister's additional secretary P K Mishra had a review meeting on resolution of non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans which have reached unacceptably high level, sources said. It was a regular stocking meeting on issues related to NPA resolution, sources said, adding that various measures to tackle rising bad loans were discussed. The banking sector is saddled with NPAs of over Rs 8 lakh crore, of which Rs 6 lakh crore is on the books of public sector banks (PSBs). Ministry of Corporate Affairs Secretary Tapan Ray, who also holds additional charge as secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, and Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal were among the senior officials present at the meeting. The...

Over 50 Indians, including gymnast Dipa Karmakar, Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik and actress   Alia Bhatt , are among Forbes' list of super achievers from Asia under the age of 30 who are "pushing boundaries of innovation". The second Forbes '30 Under 30' Asia list 2017 features 300 impressive young entrepreneurs -- 30 in 10 categories, including entertainment, finance and venture capital, retail, social entrepreneurs and enterprise technology, under the age of 30 years who are pushing the boundaries of innovation. India has 53 achievers on the list, second only to China which has 76 honorees. Leading the pack from India are Karmakar, 23, who became the first Indian female gymnast to ever compete in the Olympics during the last games held in Rio de Janeiro - and the first Indian gymnast to compete in 52 years. "While she didn't win a medal, she ranked an impressive fourth on her first-ever Olympic outing, missing the bronze by a hair's bre...

Home Loan  : Have you ever been hounded by telemarketers urging you to apply for a loan? Calls, text messages, WhatsApp or even meeting you in person, representatives of financial companies leave no stone unturned when it comes to convincing you to take a loan. But how is the loan application processed? Do lenders really bend over backwards to hand you the loan cheque? It does not quite work that way.  Yes, sales personnel employed by financial institutions are aggressive in their attempts to lure you. They have to be; their commissions depend on it. And if one takes the bait and applies for a loan, the situation is likely to change by the time the application is processed. It is the borrower who is expected to satisfy the credit parameters and fulfil all the eligibility criteria for the Home Loan. Let’s get down to the basics. What do you think is the main eligibility criteria for taking a Home Loan?  The simple answer is the borrower’s abi...