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FINANCIAL EXPRESS March 11, 2019 Private banks maintained a strong momentum on gains in deposit share largely at the expense of public sector undertaking (PSU) banks, a trend that we see in all deposit products and across geographies. The focus of banks has tilted from rapid expansion to productivity improvement—overall gains in productivity were balanced across geographies. Overall growth in deposits moderated after strong growth in FY2017 as the impact of demonetisation faded off. Branch expansion moderate After witnessing rapid expansion in branches over the past five years (7% CAGR), the pace of branch expansion has moderated with overall branches increasing by 1% year-on-year (y-o-y) in FY18. Growth in branches was flat in urban areas after witnessing 10% y-o-y growth in FY17 while rural areas saw a slight pickup in branch expansion (up 2% y-o-y) after decline of 3.5% in FY17. PSU banks continue to lose share PSU banks have lost 770 basis points (bps) market share in...

Financial Express March 10, 2019        The fall of Nirav Modi is among the most dramatic ones in the history of India business. Once a globally celebrated Indian jewelry magnate rubbing shoulders with the likes of Britain’s Prince Charles and Hollywood and Bollywood A-listers such as Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Taraji P Henson, Karlie Kloss, Priyanka Chopra, and Kareena Kapoor sporting his designs, Nirav Modi’s fortune took a nosedive when he got himself embroiled in one of the largest bank frauds in the history of India. His illegal dealings with the foreign branches of India’s commercial banks began in 2011, but was unearthed in January last year, making Modi the destroyer of his own destiny. Now a fugitive diamantaire Modi, who was spotted in London’s West End by UK-based newspaper The Telegraph, is accused of siphoning off Rs 13,500 crore from Punjab National Bank (PNB), India’s second largest public sector lender. ...

Financial Express March 10, 2019            Struggling IDBI Bank is charting out a revival strategy to bring banking and insurance under one roof to its customers, along with its new owner Life Insurance Corporation. In January, LIC had completed the process of picking up a controlling 51 per cent stake in the nearly crippled IDBI Bank which has been under the prompt corrective action framework of the regulator that bans it from corporate lending and branch expansions, salary hikes and other regular activities. The  RBI  action followed after its bad loans touched 33 per cent which in the December 2018 has come down to 29 per cent of its total assets. The bank and LIC, through its collective network of branches, offices and workforce, have started leveraging their mutual business synergies, a statement said Sunday. The major areas of synergy identified for the immediate short-term are pertaining to selling of LIC policies through IDBI br...

The Economic Times March 11, 2019         SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir government has cautioned all magistrate-level officials, especially those posted in south Kashmir and border areas not to receive phone calls from unknown numbers.  The suspected callers identify themselves as senior Army and Intelligence officials seeking critical security and administrative details of the particular area. The government was alerted after at least two magistrates in south Kashmir received phone calls earlier this month from unknown number seeking critical details. The officials, not sensing any foul play, gave out the details of the work they were doing and other assignments and projects going on in their areas. However, the surveillance teams from the security establishment were alerted after witnessing a series of calls coming in from across the border through various calling platforms.  “One of the officials was asked about the deployment o...

The Hindu March 10, 2019            Much before the ₹14,000 crore letters of undertaking (LoU) scam came to light at the Punjab National Bank in 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — first in August 2016 and twice later — cautioned the banks about the possible misuse of the SWIFT infrastructure and directed them to implement safeguards. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is the global messaging software that enables financial entities to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardised and reliable environment. Despite repeated warnings, the PNB fraud, touted to be among the biggest in the industry, happened. This prompted the banking regulator to again remind banks on February 20, 2018 (the PNB scam came to light on February 14) about the possible misuse of SWIFT. Even the PNB scam failed to wake up banks. As a result, the regulator came down heavily on the ban...

The Hindu March 10, 2019       Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has demanded that Pakistan act “decisively against anti-Iranian terrorists” in a phone call with the country’s Premier, Tehran said, a month after a bloody attack on security forces. Iran says a Pakistani suicide bomber was behind the February 13 attack that killed 27 Revolutionary Guards in its volatile southeastern province of Sistan-Balochistan. A Sunni jihadist group, Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), which Tehran says operates mostly out of bases in neighbouring Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the blast. Mr. Rouhani in the phone conversation on Saturday evening with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called to maintain good ties and pointed the finger of blame at Tehran’s traditional regional and international foes. Reference link:  https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/iran-asks-pak-to-act-against-terrorists/article26488712.ece  

DAWN March 11, 2019 MULTAN: US-Pakistan relations were under strain because of FATF but because of Pakistan’s role in US-Taliban peace dialogues, the relationship with the US is going to take a new turn, said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday. Invited to a gathering of media persons and his supporters in his constituency NA-156, Mr Qureshi spoke at length about US-Taliban peace talks in Afghanistan, the government’s dealings with India over Kashmir and relationship with neighbouring countries. “US had placed Pakistan in the grey list of Financial Action Task Force [FATF] and consequently, its relationship with Islamabad was not that great. But because of our successful foreign policy ties between both countries are improving,” he said at the Multan Tea House, a café on the lines of Pak Tea House in Lahore, located inside the Multan Arts Council. He attributed this to Pakistan’s behind-the-scenes role in US-Taliban peace dialogue. “Our relati...

DAWN March 12, 2019           INFLATION is once again the news, having risen further to 8.2 per cent in February. That inflation comes with costs is not news. For the poor, a rise in the prices of essential items (if it exceeds income growth) can be a death knell, both literally (for subsistence households), and indirectly, due to the inability to afford needed medical and health spending. It can also force parents to choose between whether their child goes to school or works. Importantly, inflation is a tax that erodes the purchasing power of the currency. Thus, the poor, who hold much of their assets in cash, bear this tax disproportionately, while the rich can partly evade it by holding assets that are return-bearing (like bonds), increasing in value (like land), or in a stable foreign currency (like the dollar). Then, by raising uncertainty about the future, inflation discourages investment in projects that raise the economy’s productive capacit...

News 18 March 08, 2019 Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have developed a smartphone-based application to detect counterfeit currency and also provided solutions for industrial operations ranging from thermal power plants to nuclear radiation tracking, an official said on Thursday. A group of six students from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering developed the code for a smartphone application to detecting counterfeit currency. "A user can upload a currency note image and the mobile app would verify its authenticity using 25 features extracted from the front and rear side of the currency note. In case of detection of a fake note, the user will also be notified...," T.Y.S.S. Santosh, the research leader, said. To address the issue of occupational hazard for people working in the domain of a nuclear-powered device, students were asked to develop a solution for visualising and localising a 3D radiation source along with its size, shape and orientation,...

Hindustan Times March 11, 2019            Even as international pressure has forced Pakistan into taking some action, only if symbolic, against terrorist organisations flourishing on its soil, the reaction that would have hurt it the most came from China. By taking a neutral position between India and Pakistan after the terrorist attack in Pulwama and the airstrikes in Balakot, China has revealed the true value it places on Pakistan. During his media briefing on Friday, China’s foreign minister and state councillor, Wang Yi, reiterated the need for preventing escalation and solving the matter through dialogue. It is true that China, unlike other countries, has not asked Pakistan to take stern action against terrorists, but Islamabad would have hoped for greater rhetorical support from its old friend during this crisis. It is not that China has not supported Pakistan at all. It did try its best to ensure that the United Nations Security Council stateme...

Hindustan Times March 11, 2019        Amid heightened tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad, a reciprocal visit by the Indian team to Pakistan for inspection of projects in Indus river basin this month has been postponed, senior officials said Sunday. During the 115th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission held in Lahore from August 29-30, 2018, both the commissioners had agreed to undertake the treaty-mandated tours of the Indus basin on both sides,the official said. The tour of the Pakistani side was originally scheduled in October 2018 but was postponed because of local bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Subsequently, the Pakistani team visited India in the last week of January to inspect projects in the Chenab basin in the state. Pakistani Indus Commissioner Syed Mohammad Mehar Ali Shah and Indian Commissioner PK Saxena along with respective advisers visited the under-construction Indian hydropower projects in Chenab basin namely Pakal Dul (100...