After studying law I vectored towards journalism by accident and it's the only job I've done since. It's a job that has taken me on a private jet to Jaisalmer - where I wrote India's first feature on fractional ownership of business jets - to the badlands of west UP where India's sugar economy is inextricably now tied to politics. I'm a big fan of new business models and crafty entrepreneurs. Fortunately for me, there are plenty of those in Asia at the moment.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the risk weight on consumer loans from 100 percent to 125 percent. This comes on the back of rapid growth in the consumer loan business. Retail unsecured loans have grown from 7.8 percent of bank credit in FY18 to 10.6 percent on June 2023. This new rule also applies to NBFCs, but excludes home loans. (Economic Times, Mint, Business Standard, Financial Express)
VI limits subscriber loss to 50,000 in August
Vodafone Idea has registered the lowest subscriber loss since 2018. It lost 50,000 subscribers in August while Jio gained 3.2 million and Airtel gained 1.2 million. This could also mean that VI, for the first time, managed to sell 4G connections and managed to keep its quarterly loss to 1.6 million subscribers, as compared to a 4.5 million per quarter loss in earlier quarters. (Economic Times)
Sebi to revise delisting norms
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) plans to simplify norms for companies that want to delist. Sebi had issued a consultation paper for delisting norms and has indicated that it wants to move beyond the reverse book building process for delisting. There is also a change in rules for perpetual insiders coming; these are promoters, founders and senior executives. There is currently no window for them to trade shares and this is also up for review. (Financial Express, Business Line)
LRS remittances rose 26 percent in Q2
Outward remittances are up as Indians travel more, send more money for education overseas and buy more overseas assets. In Q2 of FY24, they rose 26 percent to $9.23 billion. In September 2023 international travel accounted for nearly 57 percent of all money spent overseas under the scheme. The surge in September could also be on account of the change in rules from October 1 when the tax collected at source on foreign remittances rose from 5 percent to 20 percent. (Business Standard)