Issue: 1268
· HDFC Bank paid ex-chairman
Atanu Chakraborty Rs 1.07 cr in FY26 before exit.
· HDFC Bank CEO Sashidhar
Jagdishan's remuneration rises in FY26 to Rs 15.13 crore.
· India’s Russian crude oil
imports hit record high in June, surge 34%.
· Swift starts blockchain
ledger with initial set of 17 banks.
· Citigroup expands
cross-border instant payments to partner banks.
· SBI Funds raises Rs 1,880
crore in pre-IPO placement.
· FSSAI calls on citizens to
flag unsafe food, dirty kitchens.
FPIs return to Indian
stocks in July with Rs 15,157 crore inflows after four-month selling streak: Foreign portfolio investors
(FPIs) turned net buyers of Indian equities in July after four consecutive
months of selling, investing more than Rs 15,157 crore so far this month,
according to data from CDSL. The turnaround comes after
FPIs withdrew Rs 49,340 crore in June, Rs 32,963 crore in May, Rs 60,847 crore
in April and Rs 1.17 lakh crore in March. Before the prolonged selling streak,
foreign investors had invested Rs 22,615 crore in Indian equities in February. Despite
the July recovery, FPIs remain net sellers for the year, pulling out around Rs
2.6 lakh crore from Indian equities so far in 2026, higher than the Rs 1.66
lakh crore withdrawn during the corresponding period last year.
(Moneycontrol)
Retail inflation likely to
have breached 4% mark in June: Driven by surging food costs
and the domestic pass-through of global fuel hikes, retail inflation is
projected to breach the crucial 4 per cent mark in June after a 16-month
hiatus. Despite the spike, the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)
is expected to hold policy rates steady during its upcoming review on August
3–5. Under the new 2024 base series, CPI inflation has climbed from 2.74 per
cent in January 2026 to 3.93 per cent in May, surging 45 basis points
sequentially in the last month alone. Core inflation similarly touched 3.9 per
cent in May.
(Business Line)
Global M&A activity on
track to eclipse 2021 deal boom, Morgan Stanley says: Morgan Stanley expects global
mergers and acquisitions activity to hit a record $6.4 trillion in 2026,
overshadowing the levels seen in 2021 as ?buoyant equity markets and renewed
corporate confidence set off a flurry ?of transactions. The projection points
to a broad-based revival in global dealmaking after years of high interest
rates and market volatility kept executives on the sidelines. Although
the Middle East conflict ?and fears of AI-driven disruption weighed on
sentiment earlier this year, Wall ?Street appears to have largely brushed aside
those worries.
(Reuters)
HDFC Bank workforce drops
by over 3,300 as operations automated: HDFC Bank Ltd.’s workforce
declined by 3,343 employees in the financial year ended March as India’s
largest private lender accelerated efforts to automate operations and redeploy
staff to customer-facing roles. The bank’s total staff fell to
211,178 as of March 31 from a year earlier with new hiring dropping by 3,811,
according to its annual report released on Saturday. Of the total,
non-supervisory employees - often classified as workmen or clerical and
subordinate staff - decreased by more than 8,000 to 162,797, indicating a
significant reduction may have come in operational and back-office roles.
(Moneycontrol)
HDFC Bank incorporates new
GenAI platform ‘Neev’ as it scales AI adoption across businesses: HDFC Bank has introduced a new
GenAI platform called ‘Neev’ as the country’s largest private lender scales
adoption of artificial intelligence across all its operations while maintaining
regulatory oversight. The past year has been
transformational for HDFC Bank, not only in terms of what it delivered, but how
it was engineered. GenAI has played a key role in this shift, but equally
important has been the strengthening of the underlying architecture, platforms
and delivery model,” the lender said in its annual report for the fiscal year
2026. Neev is an in-house enterprise
GenAI full-stack platform. According to the bank, the platform standardises AI
development, allowing business teams to focus on solving operational problems
while ensuring consistency and enterprise-wide controls.
(Moneycontrol)
RBL Bank’s data centre to
handle 5x current transaction volumes: RBL Bank’s new data centre
will be capable of processing nearly five times its current transaction
volumes, with the underlying architecture designed to support the lender’s
technology requirements for the next 10-12 years, Ravi Pichan, chief
information officer and head – digital banking said. “The core architecture has
been designed for 10 to 12 years, while the current setup gives us sufficient
capacity for the next two to three years,” Pichan said. “We’ve designed it so
that scaling beyond that becomes pretty plug and play.”
(Financial Express)
Indian Bank drops capital
raising plan on lower ECL hit: Indian Bank has cancelled its
planned share sale to raise funds. The lender's expected credit loss impact is
now estimated lower than previously calculated. This revised calculation means
the bank will not need to raise additional capital. The bank's net profit rose
ten percent year-on-year in the fiscal first quarter. Gross advances and
deposits also saw significant year-on-year growth.
(Economic Times)
Life insurers trim
advertising spend by 20% in FY26 amid cost pressures: The advertising and publicity
expenses of life insurance companies declined in the financial year 2025-26
(FY26) compared with the previous year (FY25), owing to a drop in such
expenditure by private life insurers. According to experts, private life insurers
cut spending following the Goods and Services Tax (GST) exemption on individual
term insurance, which led to growth in the segment in the second half of the
year, as well as restructuring following the loss of input tax credit (ITC). According
to data analysed from the public disclosures of life insurers, advertisement
and publicity expenses dropped 19.8 per cent to Rs 3,196 crore in FY26 from Rs
3,988.04 crore in FY25. Of this, private life insurers' expenses fell to Rs
2,512.8 crore from Rs 3,436 crore in FY25, while state-owned Life Insurance
Corporation of India's (LIC's) expenses rose to Rs 683 crore from Rs 551.8
crore.
(Business Standard)
India plans private entry
into missile manufacturing as demand for DRDO's Astra missile rises: Report: India is preparing to allow private companies to
enter missile manufacturing, marking one of the most significant changes in its
defence production policy, according to a report by Hindustan Times.The move
follows growing international interest in Indian-made missile systems,
including Indonesia’s reported interest in acquiring the Defence Research and
Development Organisation’s (DRDO) Astra missile, prompting the government to
expand production capacity to meet rising domestic and export requirements.
(Mint)
Govt, Nasscom working on AI
curriculum for undergraduate programmes: The government is working with IT industry
body Nasscom for developing an artificial intelligence curriculum for
undergraduate programmes, a senior executive said on Thursday. The National
Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) is a leading IT
industry body. With the increasing use of AI in various areas, there is also a
need to provide reskilling and upskilling opportunities for graduates.
(Business Standard)
200,000 micro
food processing enterprises covered under PMFME scheme: Govt: India's Food Processing Industries
Minister Chirag Paswan on Thursday announced that over 2 lakh micro enterprises
have received credit-linked subsidy under the PMFME scheme since its launch in
2020 to set up processing facilities with a combined investment of Rs 20,300
crore. The total subsidy amount provided so far under the Pradhan Mantri
Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme is around Rs
6,000 crore, he added. Paswan said the PMFME Scheme, which was launched in
2020, has been extended till September this year, and the ministry is
considering launching PMFME 2.0 with suitable changes to attract more
investments in this sector.
(Business Standard)
EPFO rolls out 6-month
Amnesty Scheme to regularise exempted PF trusts: The Employees' Provident Fund
Organisation (EPFO) has launched a six-month Amnesty Scheme, 2026, offering
establishments operating exempted Provident Fund (PF) trusts a one-time
opportunity to regularise their status under the Employees' Provident Fund and
Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. In a statement issued on Sunday, the
Ministry of Labour and Employment said the scheme is aimed at establishments
whose PF trusts are recognised under the Income Tax Act but do not have a
formal exemption notification from the appropriate government. The ministry
said employers, stakeholders, and the general public should "take note of
the scheme, which will remain open for a period of six months."
(Business Today)
SEBI employees will need to
liquidate all ‘non-permitted investment’, disclose professional interests: Taking lessons from the controversy involving
its former Chairperson, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has
amended regulations governing employee service. A new clause has been added
prescribing liquidation of all non-permitted investment at the time of joining.
In addition, employees will need to disclose details of their professional
interests during the last three years.
(Business Line)
MCA considers global audit
norms placing responsibility on group auditors: Nearly two years after the National Financial
Reporting Authority (NFRA) proposed adopting global auditing standards that
place greater responsibility on group auditors, the Ministry of Corporate
Affairs (MCA) is in advanced consultation stages and is likely to decide soon,
official sources said. The proposal gained significance following the Rajesh
Exports matter, in which statutory auditors and the company’s audit committee
came under scrutiny over the alleged failure to independently verify revenues
reported by overseas subsidiaries. NFRA has initiated an investigation into the
alleged financial misstatements. NFRA recommended the revised Standard on
Auditing (SA) 600 to the government in November 2024 along with 33 other
auditing standards, despite opposition from the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of India (ICAI). NFRA had proposed that the revised standards take
effect from April 1, 2026, subject to government approval.
(Business Standard)
FINANCIAL
ACCELERATOR MECHANISM
§ The
Financial Accelerator is an economic theory explaining how imperfections in
credit markets amplify business cycles. During periods of economic expansion,
rising asset prices improve borrowers' net worth, enabling easier access to
credit and encouraging further investment and consumption. Conversely, during
downturns, falling asset values weaken collateral, restrict lending, reduce
investment, and deepen the recession, thereby reinforcing the economic
slowdown.
§ This
mechanism highlights the interconnectedness of financial markets and the real
economy and underscores the importance of macroprudential regulations, capital
buffers, and timely central bank interventions to prevent financial shocks from
escalating into systemic crises.
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 : 95.3129
INR
/ 1 GBP : 128.0252
INR
/ 1 EUR : 109.0815
INR
/100 JPY: 59.0200
EQUITY INDEX
Sensex:
77569.39 (+827.57)
NIFTY:
24206.90 (+244.10)
Bnk NIFTY: 58045.90 (+793.45)
Historical events: July 13 marks
pivotal moments in Indian and global history, including the 1931 killing of 22
protesters by Dogra forces and the 1830 founding of Kolkata's Scottish Church
College. Globally, it commemorates the start of the inaugural FIFA World Cup in
1930 and the dual 1985 Live Aid Concerts for Ethiopian famine relief.
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