Issue: 1135
India-US trade pact timeline set; first tranche in 4-5 days: India on Thursday established
a definitive timeline for its high-stakes Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with
the US. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal announced that the two
sides will sign a joint statement on the first tranche of the BTA within the
next four to five days, following which US tariffs on Indian exports will be
brought down to 18 per cent from the current 50 per cent. The reduced tariffs would
be operationalised through a US executive order, expected a day or two after
the joint statement is signed, the Minister said.
(Business Line)
PM Modi says EU, US trade deals open new opportunities for
youth, SMEs:
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India’s recent trade deals with the
European Union (EU) and the United States would open up opportunities for the
country’s youth and for its small and medium enterprises (SMEs). He said a new
world order was taking shape just as it had after the Second World War, but on
this occasion it was tilting towards India. Modi said the world was feeling
more confident about stability after these developments, and he urged Indian
manufacturers to focus on the “quality” of their products even if it meant
lower profits.
(Business Standard)
Federal Bank receives RBI approval for Blackstone’s 9.99% stake
buy: RBI has given its approval to Blackstone
for acquiring an aggregate stake of up to 9.99% in Federal Bank, the private
lender said on Thursday. Private equity
firm Blackstone is acquiring stake through its arm Asia II Topco XIII Pte Ltd. Blackstone’s
proposed investment in Federal Bank is set to mark one of the biggest private
equity entries into India’s private banking space, underscoring growing global
investor confidence in the country’s financial services sector. The deal, which
would make Blackstone the largest shareholder in Federal Bank, involves an
investment of around $700 million for a 9.9% stake.
(Moneycontrol)
LIC Q3 FY26 profit rises 17% to Rs 12,958 crore on strong
premium growth: State-owned
life insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) reported a 17 per cent
jump in net profit at Rs 12,958 crore in the third quarter ended December 2025.
The country’s biggest insurer earned a net profit of Rs 11,056 crore in the
year-ago period. During the quarter, the net premium income of the insurer rose
to Rs 1,25,613 crore from Rs 1,06,891 crore in the same period a year ago. The
total income also improved to Rs 2,33,984 crore in the latest December quarter
compared to Rs 2,01,994 crore in the same period a year ago.
(Financial Express)
Grievances in general, health insurance jump 41% in FY25: Policyholder complaints
against insurance companies, particularly for health covers, surged in FY25.
Grievances in general and health insurance jumped 41% to 1,37,361. Standalone
health insurers saw a 33% rise. Claims settlement issues, including repudiation
and delays, were the primary cause. Life insurance complaints focused on
survival claims and servicing. Irdai is addressing mis-selling concerns.
(Economic Times)
SBI raises $1 billion from MUFG via social loan: State Bank of India has
secured a significant $1 billion loan from Japan's MUFG. This marks the first
social loan of its kind for an Indian bank. The funds are earmarked for lending
to women and women-led businesses. This initiative aims to boost women's
economic empowerment and promote gender equality.
(Economic Times)
PSB meet for road map to create global lenders likely this month: The government is likely to
convene a conclave for state-run banks later this month to formulate strategy
and road map to build globally competitive lenders keen to ready the banking
system for Viksit Bharat 2047. The conclave will also look to
build a consensus on strengthening customer-centric initiatives across all 12
state-run lenders. Banks will also discuss future strategy initiatives and
operational interventions that could help them scale up and expand credit,
people familiar with the developments said. "The idea is to devise a
strategy for execution of the key central themes identified during PSB Manthan
in September 2025. In addition, the banks will be sharing their best practices
and business roadmap for the next five years,"
(Economic Times)
Wall Street falls as Big Tech AI spending rattles investors: Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday,
with the Nasdaq dragged to its lowest since November by losses ?in Microsoft ,
Amazon and other tech heavyweights after Alphabet said it could double capital ?spending
on AI in the race to dominate the emerging technology. Shares of Alphabet fell
0.55% ?after the Google parent said it plans as much as $185 billion in capex
in 2026. Together, it and its Big Tech rivals are expected to collectively
shell out more than $500 billion on AI this year. Investors this week have
also worried that rapidly improving AI tools could eat into demand for
traditional software, squeezing profit margins across the sector. Software and
data ?services stocks added to recent losses, with ServiceNow down 7.6% and
Salesforce losing almost 5%.
(Business Line)
DPIIT revises start-up definition, introduces deep-tech category: The Centre by way of a modification to the
‘start-up definition’ now explicitly recognises ‘deep-tech’ start-ups and will
also allow such companies to be considered as start-ups for 20 years after incorporation.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the
Ministry Of Commerce has issued a notification modifying its erstwhile 2019
Rules for recognition of start-ups. It has now introduced a new criterion for
an entity to be classified as a ‘deep-tech start-up.’ The new rules define a
deep-tech start-up as an entity operating on new scientific or engineering
knowledge with high R&D spend and creating intellectual property (IP). It
also adds that such entities must have long gestation periods, high capex
infrastructure needs, and some level of technical/scientific uncertainty. As per the notification
dated February 4, the maximum annual turnover for such ventures to be
classified as deep-tech will now be ?300 crore and the maximum time period for
which they will be deemed a deep-tech start-up is to be 20 years from its
incorporation. As for non deep-tech start-ups, the maximum annual turnover has
been revised from earlier the ?100 crore to ?200 crore. The time period has
been left unchanged at 10 years from incorporation. Moreover, it adds that cooperative societies can be
recognised as start-ups, in addition to entities such as private limited
companies, partnership firms, and limited liability partnerships (LLPs).
(Business Line)
Bharat Taxi launch set to disrupt ride-hailing market: Union Home Minister Amit Shah
on Thursday launched Bharat Taxi in Delhi-NCR and Gujarat, India’s first
cooperative-based ride-hailing platform, at an event at Vigyan Bhawan in New
Delhi. The platform, operated by Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Limited (STCL) in
collaboration with the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and
supported by NABARD and Amul, marks first of its kind government-backed entry
into the aggregator-dominated ride-hailing space. Registered under the
Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002, Bharat Taxi operates on a ‘Sarathi
Hi Malik’ (driver is owner) model. Each driver holds a minimum of five shares
worth Rs 500, entitling them to dividends from profits. The platform claims to
have already distributed approximately Rs 10 crore in earnings directly to
drivers since its soft launch in December 2025.
(Financial Express)
SEBI moves to soften ‘fit and proper’ norms for intermediaries: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the ‘fit and proper person’ framework governing market intermediaries, seeking to ease compliance pressures while retaining safeguards around integrity and conduct. The regulator proposed removing automatic disqualifications triggered merely by the filing of criminal complaints, FIRs or charge sheets in economic offence cases, arguing that such steps represent only the initiation of legal proceedings and should not, by themselves, bar individuals or entities from operating in the securities market.
(Business Line)
SEBI to ease stress test, settlement guarantee fund for
commodity derivatives: SEBI has proposed to ease the stress testing
and coverage of settlement guarantee fund for commodity derivatives market to
promote ease of doing business and align risk management with global standards.
In a consultation paper, it has proposed reducing the Z-score used for
historical stress testing in commodity derivatives to five from the existing 10
and revising the coverage requirement of the core settlement guarantee fund to
account for the simultaneous default of the top three clearing members, instead
of factoring in 50 per cent of the credit exposure arising from the default of
all clearing members. Under the current framework,
clearing corporations are required to conduct standardised stress testing using
peak historical price movements over a 15-year period, with extreme returns
capped at a Z-score of 10.
(Business Line)
FEAR OF MISSING OUT (FOMO)
§ FOMO
(Fear of Missing Out) is the pervasive anxiety that others are having rewarding
experiences, leading to a compulsive desire to stay constantly connected with
their activities. Heavily driven by social media, this phenomenon often results
in negative emotions like loneliness, envy, and poor sleep.
§ Of
course, following the crowd, especially impulsively, goes against standard
investing advice and can result in poor returns over time. But there are ways
to combat the impulse to give in to FOMO. Below, we'll walk through why you
should avoid it and the alternatives to take.
RBI KEY RATES
Repo
Rate: 5.25%
SDF:
5.00%
MSF
/Bank Rate: 5.50%
CRR:
3.00%
SLR:
18.00%
FOREX RATES (RBI
REF. RATE)
INR /
1 USD : 90.3957
INR /
1 GBP : 123.0328
INR /
1 EUR : 106.5488
INR
/100 JPY: 57.6000
EQUITY INDEX
Sensex: 83313.93 (-503.76)
NIFTY: 25642.80 (-133.20)
Bnk
NIFTY: 60063.65 (-174.50)
International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female
Genital Mutilation: February 6 is
primarily recognized globally as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for
Female Genital Mutilation, a UN-sponsored awareness day to eradicate the
practice. It is also celebrated as National Chopsticks Day, Pay a Compliment
Day, and National Frozen Yogurt Day in various, primarily US-based, listings.
Historical events: February 6th
marks significant milestones, including the 1819 founding of modern Singapore,
the 1952 accession of Queen Elizabeth II, and the 1931 passing of Indian
freedom fighter Motilal Nehru. In 2026, rapper Badshah becomes the first Indian
to join the Ruffles NBA All-Star Celebrity Game.
****Have a nice
Day****
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