Issue: 1362
· Reliance Industries to raise
up to Rs 15,000 crore via NCDs.
· Bank loans against fixed
deposits surge 53% to Rs 2.17 lakh crore on FCNR-B leverage play.
· Centre's fiscal deficit
widens to 42% of FY27 target in H1.
· Odisha eyes semiconductor
push with five projects worth over $4 billion.
· Sebi imposes Rs.1 crore fine
on CDSL for multiple compliance lapses.
· Govt mandates at least 1-year
residual shelf life for imported drugs.
· The World Bank estimated that
496 million people had moved above the lower-middle-income poverty line of
$4.20 per person per day between 2011-12 and 2023-24, with the poverty rate
declining from 57.7 per cent to 16.1 per cent. Extreme poverty, measured at $3
per day, fell from 27.1 per cent to 2.6 per cent over the same period.
Centre constitutes National
Social Security Board to bring gig & platform workers under the welfare net:
The government has
constituted the National Social Security Board for Unorganised Workers and Gig
& Platform Workers for designing and safeguarding welfare schemes for gig
and platform professionals.Established under the statutory framework of the
Code on Social Security, these boards mark a historic shift by integrating
digital gig and platform professionals into India’s formal welfare
architecture, the Ministry of Labour and Employment said after issuing
notification for establishing it. The boards will be presided over by the Union
Minister for Labour and Employment and comprise representatives from Central
and State Governments, prominent aggregator companies, employers, civil society
organisations, workers’ unions and gig and platform associations.
(Business Line)
RBI Central Board reviews
economic conditions, evaluates risks to growth and inflation outlook: The Reserve Bank of India
Central Board of Directors on Friday deliberated on the prevailing economic
conditions and associated challenges and evaluated the potential risks to the
economic outlook. In this regard, it is worth noting that the latest Monetary
Policy Report underscored that while India’s macroeconomic outlook remains
resilient, it remains vulnerable to geopolitical developments, volatility in
global energy markets, and weather-related uncertainties.
(Business Line)
Extreme poverty falls to
2.6%, but top 10% earn 13 times more than bottom 10%: The World Bank has said that
extreme poverty in India has dipped by 2.6 per cent. However, it noted that
wage disparity remains high, with the top 10 per cent earning around 13 times
more than the bottom 10 per cent. An individual is in extreme poverty if his
daily earnings are $3 (approximately Rs 285). Between 2011 and 2023, the
share of the population living below the Lower Middle-Income Country line
($4.20/day, 2021 Purchasing Power Parity or PPP) fell to 16.1 per cent from
57.7 per cent, lifting an estimated 49.6 crore people out of poverty, while
extreme poverty ($3.00/day) declined from 27.1 per cent to 2.6 per cent.
(Business Line)
Bank of Baroda raises lending, deposit growth guidance amid strong traction for second successive quarter: Bank of Baroda has raised its projections for credit as well as deposit growth for the current financial year ending March 2027, citing strong growth across segments in both the first and second quarters, which should add to the seasonally strong second half. The country’s second-largest public sector bank now expects loan growth of 13-15%, compared with the 12-14% it had projected earlier. Deposits are seen growing in the 11-13% range, compared with the 10-12% growth it had expected earlier, its MD and CEO, Debadatta Chand, said on Friday.
(Business
Today)
Viksit Bharat banking panel
constituted: Suresh Patel-led panel to draft 6-month reform roadmap: The central government on
October 30 has constituted a 'High Level Committee on Banking for Viksit
Bharat' to undertake a review of India’s banking sector and recommend
structural, institutional, regulatory and legislative reforms necessary to make
it globally competitive, financially inclusive, and resilient, an official
release from the finance ministry said. The 5-member panel will be
headed by Suresh N. Patel, former Central Vigilance Commissioner. The other
members are: Shirish Chandra Murmu, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India;
Padmaja Chunduru Former MD & CEO, Indian Bank; and N S Vishwanathan, Former
Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India. The fifth member is the Joint Secretary
(Banking), Department of Financial Services, who will serve as Member Secretary
of the Committee. The tenure of the Committee
shall be six months.
(Moneycontrol)
RBI to retain existing
dimensions for polymer notes to avoid ATM reconfiguration costs: RBI plans to retain the
dimensions of existing Rs 10 and Rs 20 banknotes for its proposed polymer
currency pilot to avoid the cost of reconfiguring ATMs, with the rollout likely
to begin on April 1, 2027. Keeping the dimensions unchanged
would spare banks the expense of modifying cash-dispensing cassettes, updating
sensors and deploying engineers to recalibrate machines, a senior public sector
bank official said. “Retaining the existing dimensions will help banks avoid
upfront capital expenditure on ATM reconfiguration. Since the programme will
initially be a pilot covering smaller denominations, the savings could be
substantial,” a senior official of a state-owned bank said. Previous
nationwide recalibration exercises following the introduction of new Rs 100 and
Rs 200 notes cost ATM industry around Rs 100 crore or Rs 1 billion to
reconfigure around 2.4 lakh machines, according to estimates cited by sources.
(Moneycontrol)
Bank of Baroda Q2 results: Profit rises 36%, net NPA sees sharp
improvement: Bank
of Baroda posted its Q2 FY27 net profit at Rs 6,532 crore, rising 36%
year-on-year from Rs 4,809 crore in the year-ago period. Its net interest
income jumped 9% YoY to Rs 13,026 crore as compared to 11,954 crore in Q2 FY26.
For the quarter ended September, the lender’s Gross NPA slipped to 1.78% from
1.99% in the trailing quarter, while it dropped 38 basis points YoY to 2.16% in
Q2 FY26. Also BoB’s Net NPA ratio, fell to 0.37% from 0.50% in Q1 FY27. In the
July-September quarter, the bank posted its Net NPA at Rs 5,520 crore, falling
sharply from Rs 7,141 crore in Q2 FY26. Sequentially, too NPA fell from Rs
7,017 crore in Q1 FY27.
(Financial Express)
AU Small Finance Bank hit
by a likely breach of 'limited' data: AU Small Finance Bank, which
on Friday reported a likely breach of customer data involving a third-party
software platform, is expected to see only a minimal financial impact due to a
dedicated 100-crore cyber insurance cover from New India Assurance, people
aware of the development told ET. The lender is investigating a
potential breach of "limited data" pertaining to its vehicle-loan
customers. The data was hosted on a third-party software platform operated by
Salesforce.
(Economic Times)
PSU banks cut fresh deposit
rates more sharply than private lenders in September: RBI data: In September, public sector
banks cut their interest rates on fresh term deposits by 10 basis points.
Private sector banks only reduced their rates by six basis points during the
same period. Fresh rupee loan rates declined by six basis points at public
sector banks while private banks maintained their rates. The weighted average
lending rate for fresh loans fell to 8.51% from 8.61% in August.
(Economic Times)
RIL Q2 profit jumps 41% to
Rs 25,548 crore; Jio ARPU rises to Rs 218.8: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday reported a
40.64 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase in consolidated net profit to Rs
25,548 crore in the second quarter (Q2 FY27), compared with Rs 18,165 crore in
the corresponding quarter last year. Revenue from operations rose 28.57 per
cent YoY to Rs 3,32,861 crore in Q2 FY27 from Rs 2,58,898 crore in Q2 FY26. Alongside announcing its
quarterly earnings, RIL said its board has approved a resolution to raise up to
Rs 15,000 crore through the issuance of listed, secured or unsecured,
redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on a private placement basis, in
one or more tranches. Meanwhile, newly-listed Jio Platforms Ltd reported
consolidated quarterly revenue of Rs 47,485 crore, up 11.3 per cent YoY. Its
quarterly EBITDA increased 16.6 per cent YoY to Rs 21,879 crore. Jio is RIL's
digital services and telecommunications arm.
(Business Today)
UPI now accepted for online
bookings at Burj Khalifa, Universal Studios Singapore and other major
attractions:
Indian
travellers visiting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore can now use
the UPI to make online bookings at some of the two countries’ popular tourist
attractions, according to the Ministry of Finance. The facility allows visitors
to use their preferred UPI applications to book experiences at At the Top, Burj
Khalifa, in Dubai, and attractions at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore. The
move is aimed at making international travel payments more convenient by
reducing friction associated with cross-border transactions.
(Business Today)
Govt tightens rules for
importing medicines, sets minimum shelf-life requirement: The Union Health Ministry has
tightened rules for importing medicines into India, mandating that drugs must
have at least one year of shelf life remaining at the time of import. However,
the requirement will be different for biological drugs and
radiopharmaceuticals, for which at least 60 per cent of their labelled shelf
life must remain. For biological drugs and
radiopharmaceuticals, the government has provided a separate threshold,
allowing imports where “Sixty percent of the labelled shelf-life may be
allowed”.
(Business Line)
SEBI eases FPI KYC norms,
extends review cycle to eight years for eligible investors: SEBI has relaxed KYC requirements for foreign
portfolio investors (FPIs), extending the review period to eight years for
specified categories. The regulator has also removed the requirement to submit
a declaration about changes in previously furnished information at the time of
registration continuance. The changes are aimed at reducing compliance
requirements and promoting ease of doing business, the market regulator said in
a circular. Under the existing framework, FPIs were required to undergo
periodic KYC reviews annually or once every three years, depending on their
jurisdiction, category and regulatory status. The revised framework extends the
review period to eight years for eligible investors, while retaining a two-year
cycle for certain categories. Under the revised norms, Category I FPIs from
non-high-risk jurisdictions will undergo KYC reviews once every eight years.
(Financial Express)
Gold pulls forex reserves
down for seventh straight week to $719.8 billion: India’s foreign exchange reserves fell for the
seventh straight week to $719.8 billion in the week ended October 23, 2026, due
to a fall in gold reserves. While total reserves fell $1.3 billion, foreign
currency assets increased $1.4 billion. Gold reserves fell by $2.7 billion, mainly
due to valuation losses. Gold prices fell 4 per cent to $4,165.58 per ounce
during the reporting week. After hitting an all-time high of $785.7 billion in
the week ended September 4, 2026, total foreign exchange reserves fell $66
billion over the next seven weeks as the central bank sold dollars in the
foreign exchange market to curb volatility.
(Economic Times)
Cyberattack on SMARTs
portal puts Sebi's cybersecurity team on high alert: SEBI has put its cybersecurity team on red
alert following recent attempts to breach its systems, the latest being a code
execution attack on one of its portals earlier this week. According to sources,
and later confirmed by the markets regulator to Business Standard, there was a
cybersecurity attack on the Securities Market Trainers (SMARTs) portal — a
platform for eligible trainers to empanel with Sebi for investor awareness
programmes in the securities market.
(Business Standard)
X-EFFICIENCY
Ø
X-efficiency
refers to the degree of efficiency maintained by firms under conditions of
imperfect competition. Efficiency in this context means a company getting the
maximum outputs from its inputs, including employee productivity and
manufacturing efficiency.
Ø
In
a highly competitive market, firms are forced to be as efficient as possible to
ensure strong profits and continued existence. This is not true in situations
of imperfect competition, such as with a monopoly or duopoly.
Ø
When
calculating x-efficiency, a data point is usually selected to represent an
industry and then it is modeled using regression-analysis. For example, a bank
might be judged by total costs divided by total assets to get a single data
point for a firm. Then, the data points for all the banks would be compared
using regression analysis to identify the most x-efficient and where the
majority fall.
RBI KEY RATES
Repo
Rate: 5.50%
SDF:
5.25%
MSF
/Bank Rate: 5.75%
CRR:
3.00%
SLR:
18.00%
FOREX RATES (RBI REF. RATE)
INR
/ 1 USD : 95.2492
INR
/ 1 GBP : 127.6015
INR
/ 1 EUR : 106.5451
INR
/100 JPY: 60.4500
EQUITY INDEX
Sensex:
74459.53 (+308.49)
NIFTY:
23053.10 (+116.35)
Bnk NIFTY: 54686.95 (-222.70)
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