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Press Trust of India Feb 20, 2019 New Delhi: The Finance Ministry on Wednesday announced to pump in Rs 48,239 crore in 12 public sector banks (PSBs) in this fiscal to help them maintain regulatory capital requirements and finance growth plans. With this funding, the total amount of capital infusion would increase to Rs 1,00,958 crore of the planned recapitalisation of Rs 1.06 lakh crore for PSBs for the current fiscal, according to Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar. The remaining Rs 5,000 crore capital infusion would be used as a buffer for any contingency or growth capital for Bank of Baroda which is in the process of merging Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with itself. "It (pending Rs 5000 crore) may be used for any contingency or for growth capital wherever it is necessary including amalgamated entity of Bank of Baroda," Kumar said. Corporation Bank is the biggest beneficiary of this round of capital infusion with Rs 9,086 crore of funding, followed

FP Staff Feb 21, 2019 The proposed $44 billion (Rs 3 lakh crore) refinery and petrochemicals project at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra may be shifted to neighbouring Raigad district, according to media reports. Raigad is located in the Konkan region of Maharashtra. “They (the state government) are looking to shift the Ratnagiri refinery project to Raigad district," an official said, according to a report in Mint. A five-member committee of government officials, including those from the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), was set up in January to look at alternative land for the mega refinery. State-run oil companies and Saudi Arabian Oil Company known as Saudi Aramco have teamed up to build the $44 billion (Rs 3 lakh crore) refinery, which is aimed at giving India steady fuel supplies while meeting Saudi Arabia's need to secure regular buyers for its oil. Earlier, Nanar village in Ratnagiri district, some 400 km south of Mumbai was the site f

Shaji Vikraman | Edited by Explained Desk | Chennai | Updated: February 20, 2019 This is the second year running that the RBI has paid an interim dividend to the government; it had approved an interim payout of Rs 10,000 crore last year. On February 18, the RBI Board at its meeting in New Delhi approved an interim dividend payout of Rs 28,000 crore to the government, which is expected to help keep the fiscal deficit at the projected 3.4 per cent of GDP for 2018-19. This is the second year running that the RBI has paid an interim dividend to the government; it had approved an interim payout of Rs 10,000 crore last year. So, how does a central bank like the RBI generate profits (or surplus)? A central bank’s income typically comes largely from the returns it earns on its foreign currency assets, which could be in the form of bonds and treasury bills of other central banks or top-rated securities, deposits with other central banks, the interest it earns on its hold

Shubhajit Roy New Delhi Updated: February 21, 2019  This is the new formulation in the India-Saudi Arabia joint statement, which came two days after Pakistan and Saudi Arabia called for avoiding the “politicisation” of the UN listing regime. At a time when India is stepping up efforts to brand the Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group’s chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist at the UN Security Council, Saudi Arabia and India on Wednesday “underlined the importance of comprehensive sanctioning of terrorists and their organisations by the UN”. This is the new formulation in the India-Saudi Arabia joint statement, which came two days after Pakistan and Saudi Arabia called for avoiding the “politicisation” of the UN listing regime. While the visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not mention the Pulwama terror attack in his remarks after the bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the joint statement issued late on Wednesday night said that the “Prime

Rani D Mullen, Duvvuri Subbarao | Updated: February 21, 2019 If institutions such as FATF continue to keep Pakistan on the grey list or even blacklist it, and IMF imposes more stringent conditionalities, global investor confidence in Pakistan could nosedive, deepening the economic crisis. Is it possible that Pakistan has scored a self-goal by allegedly sponsoring last week’s terrorist attack on Indian security forces in Pulwama, Jammu & Kashmir which took over 40 lives? Since the Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) has claimed responsibility for the attack, India has vowed to work on isolating Pakistan economically and diplomatically as a state sponsor of terrorism. This comes at a time when Pakistan is facing an external payments crisis, with only $7 billion in reserves, less than two months of import cover, and is in desperate need of a bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Yet, if India succeeds in convincing major shareholders of the IM

By: PTI | Updated: February 20, 2019 Saudi Arabia is keen to get a foothold in the world's fastest-growing fuel market to get a captive customer for the crude oil it produces. Reliance plans to expand its only-for-exports special economic zone (SEZ) refining capacity to just over 41 million tonnes from current 35.2 million tonnes, but does not have any plans to set up a new refinery in the country.  Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil exporter, Wednesday said it is in talks with Reliance Industries and other Indian companies for investing in petrochemicals and refinery projects in the country. The Saudi national oil company, which along with its partner UAE’s Adnoc has taken a 50 per cent stake in a planned USD 44-billion mega refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in Maharashtra by state-owned oil companies, has bullish outlook on India’s energy demand; and is keen on investing here. Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Al-Nasser said he remains positive on the firm’s investment in Ind