The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has signed a Currency Swap Agreement with the Maldives Monetary Authority under the SAARC Currency Swap Framework.

The Central Government has permitted Work From Home up to the 31st of December, 2023 for 100 per cent of employees of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) units.

Payment modes such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI), debit and credit cards, prepaid payment instruments -mobile wallets and prepaid cards processed 23.06 billion transactions worth Rs 38.32 lakh crore in the third quarter of the calendar year 2022 (July-Sept), according to a report by Worldline India.

Vistara airlines will be merged with Tata-owned Air India by March 2024. In a press release Singapore Airlines and Tata Sons today said that they have agreed to merge Air India and Vistara by March 2024, subject to regulatory approvals. Singapore Airlines will invest 250 million Dollars or Rupees 2,000 crore into Air India as soon as this integration is completed.

State Bank of India has signed a 150 million euro (Rs 1,240 crore) loan agreement with the German development bank KfW for funding solar projects.The long-term loan, under the Indo-German solar partnership, will facilitate new and upcoming capacities in the solar sector and further contribute to the country's goals announced during the COP26, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.The successful closure of the phase-1 under the solar partnership- promotion of solar/PV between SBI and KfW, paves the way for the current phase-2 in our partnership with this German lender, Ashwini Tewari, a managing director at SBI said. With this facility, he added, the bank has taken another step towards sustainable financing arrangements for meeting the nation's renewable capacity goals and upholding environmental and social standards.In 2015, New Delhi and Berlin had signed a memorandum of understanding to foster solar energy through technical as well as financial cooperation. Through this agreement, Germany had expressed its willingness to provide the concessional loans to India in the range of 1 billion euros through KfW.

Bangladesh and the IMF reached a preliminary agreement under which the global lender will provide a $4.5 billion support package to stabilise its economy and protect the vulnerable people.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has approved the final Sovereign Green Bonds framework of India. Green bonds are financial instruments that generate proceeds for investment in environmentally sustainable and climate-suitable projects.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced that it would fund the farm efficiency initiative of Smartchem Technologies Limited (STL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Deepak Fertilisers And Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (DFPCL), through a $30 million loan facility with a tenor of 5 years.

GST revenue collected for the month of October was the second-highest ever, next only to the April 2022 collection. In October, Rs 1,51,718 crore were collected by the government. Out of this, CGST amounted to Rs 26,039 crore, SGST to Rs 33,396 crore, IGST to Rs 81,778 crore (including Rs 37,297 crore collected on import of goods) and cess to Rs 10,505 crore (including Rs 825 crore collected on import of goods).

The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or Digital Rupee has commenced in the wholesale segment on pilot basis. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a press release said the Digital Rupee will be used for settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities. It said that use of the E-Rupee is expected to make the inter-bank market more efficient.

Japan’s MUFG Bank said it has boosted the capital of its branches within India by ₹3,000 crore, as the bank looks to expand its India business. As a result of this capital injection, the total capital of MUFG Bank in India will rise to ₹5,207 crore.

Saudi Arabia emerged as the second-biggest oil supplier to India after a three-month gap, overtaking Russia by a thin margin, while Iraq retained the top spot in August, data from industry and trade sources showed.

India has emerged as the largest bilateral lender for Sri Lanka, overtaking China. India has provided a total of 968 million US dollars in loans to the island nation in four months of 2022. In the past five years from 2017-2021, China has been the largest bilateral lender to Sri Lanka.

The Finance Ministry has set up a high-level panel headed by former Sebi chairman M Damodaran to look into issues being faced by venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) investors.

India is set to become the third largest economy in the world by 2029. A State Bank of India report said India will surpass Germany in 2027 and most likely Japan by 2029 at the current rate of growth.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to provide a 2.9 billion dollar extended facility to Sri Lanka for a four-year period, with conditions on debt restructuring and action on corruption. The move comes after a week-long discussion between IMF and Sri Lankan authorities.

India has surpassed the United Kingdom to become the world’s 5th biggest economy. This has put India just behind the US, China, Japan and Germany. 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the guidelines on digital lending. The central bank has given regulated entities (RE) till November 30th to put in place adequate systems and processes to ensure that ‘existing digital loans’ comply with fresh lending guidelines.

India Inc's foreign direct investment in July declined over 50 per cent to USD 1.11 billion in July 2022, the Reserve Bank data showed.As per the RBI data, on Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI), the domestic companies had invested over USD 2.56 billion in July 2021 in the form of equity, loan and issuances of guarantees.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha inaugurated the 8th India International MSME Start-up Expo & Summit at New Delhi.The Expo provides a much needed platform to SMEs, startups, trade, industry, service providers to explore new opportunities, buyers-sellers meet, sharing knowledge about central/state's/UTs schemes etc.

The indigenously developed real-time payments solution Unified Payments Interface (popularly known as UPI) is all set to foray into the UK market starting with QR code-based transactions. According to a PTI report, the NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL) has forged a partnership with payments solutions provider PayXpert to internationalise the acceptance of its payment solutions in the UK.

HDFC Bank announced the launch of its latest campaign, titled ‘Vigil Aunty’ to promote safe banking habits among people.HDFC Bank said that Anuradha Menon who plays the popular character of ‘Lola Kutty’ on television, will be the face of the ‘Vigil Aunty’ campaign.

Cabinet has approved interest subvention of 1.5 percent on Short Term Agriculture Loan upto three lakh rupees.Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the decision has been taken to ensure adequate credit flow in agriculture sector.

The UN trade and development body UNCTAD said that in 2021, developing countries accounted for 15 of the top 20 economies when it comes to the share of the population that owns cryptocurrencies.Ukraine topped the list with 12.7 per cent, followed by Russia (11.9 per cent), Venezuela (10.3 per cent), Singapore (9.4 per cent), Kenya (8.5 per cent) and the US (8.3 per cent).In India, 7.3 per cent of the population owned digital currency in 2021, ranking seventh in the list of top 20 global economies for digital currency ownership as share of population.

Sebi has restructured its advisory committee on market data that recommends policy measures pertaining to securities market data access and privacy.The market data advisory committee will now have 20 members. Earlier, the committee had 21 members. The committee is chaired by S Sahoo

The government has widened the ambit of e-invoicing for businesses by lowering the mandatory turnover threshold to Rs 10 crore from Rs 20 crore under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. The new threshold starts October 1.

Exports dipped, though marginally, for the first time in 17 months in July, while trade deficit tripled to a record USD 31 billion fuelled by over 70 per cent rise in crude oil imports. The July 2022 exports at USD 35.24 billion showed a decline of by 0.76 per cent on annual basis. The country’s merchandise exports stood at USD 35.51 billion in July 2021.

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) financial inclusion (FI) index, which was constructed to capture the extent of financial inclusion across the country, has risen to 56.4 in March 2022, showing growth across all parameters. The index stood at 53.9 as of March 2021.

Zimbabwe has launched gold coins to be sold to the public, in a bid to curb an inflation spike that has eroded the country’s unstable currency.Called Mosi-oa-Tunya, which in the local Tonga language refers to Victoria Falls, the coins “will have liquid asset status”, meaning they “will be capable of being easily converted to cash and will be tradable locally and internationally”. The coins “may also be used for transactional purposes”.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), through its commercial arms, has earned 279 million dollars in foreign exchange by launching satellites for global clients, Union Minister Jitendra Singh told the Lok Sabha.

ECGC has introduced a new scheme to provide enhanced export credit risk insurance cover to the extent of 90% to support small exporters under the Export Credit Insurance for Banks Whole Turnover Packaging Credit and Post Shipment (ECIB- WTPC & PS).

Despite the pandemic which posed a serious threat to remittances to India from countries like the US, UAE and Saudi Arabia, the country received $87 billion in remittances in 2021, becoming the top remittance recipient, according to a World Health Organisation report.

The New Development Bank (NDB) has just approved five new projects totalling USD 875 million for water, sanitation, ecotourism and transport. Investments will support commitments by Brazil, China and India towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

NITI Aayog has released a report that makes a case and offers a template and roadmap for a licensing and regulatory regime for digital banks. It focuses on avoiding any regulatory or policy arbitrage and offers a level playing field to incumbents as well as competitors.

IndusInd Bank said its board has approved a proposal to raise up to Rs 20,000 crore in debt on a private placement basis to fund its business growth. The capital adequacy ratio of the bank stood at 18.42% as on March 31, with tier-I capital being at 16.80% and tier-II capital at 1.62% as percentage of its risk-weighted assets.

The Reserve Bank of India has hiked the minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) for Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) with deposits above Rs 100 crore to 12 per cent from the earlier floor of 9.0 per cent.It has provided a glide path till March 2026 to meet revised CAR norm in phases for UCBs that don't meet it currently.

The government on July 16 declared the so-called zero-coupon, zero-principal instruments as securities that can be listed on particular exchanges.According to the gazette notification, “zero coupon zero principal instrument” is an instrument issued by a not-for-profit organisation that will be registered with the social stock exchange segment of a recognised stock exchange in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) regulations.

The Reserve Bank of India said on 17 July said that the share of remittances from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region to India has declined in 2021, reflecting a slower pace of migration and the presence of the Indian diaspora in informal sectors that were hit the most during the pandemic period.

The World Bank approved a 500 million USD credit to help Bangladesh improve disaster preparedness against inland flooding in 14 flood-prone districts benefiting over 1.25 million people.The credit has been approved under the Resilient Infrastructure for Adoption and Vulnerability Reduction (RIVER) project of the World Bank. It will fund the construction of 500 multipurpose flood shelters, access roads, and climate-resilient community infrastructure in the country.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bank Indonesia (BI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Bali, Indonesia, to improve mutual cooperation between them.With this MoU, RBI and BI committed to deepening relations between the two central banks and strengthening the exchange of information and cooperation in the area of central banking, including payment systems, digital innovation in payments services, and regulatory and supervisory framework for Anti Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT).

Kotak Mahindra Bank has completed technical integration with the new e-filing portal of the Income Tax department and has become the first private bank to fully integrate with the portal.Its customers can now pay their direct taxes through the e-pay tax tab on the portal using Kotak net banking or by visiting a branch. This will make the tax payment process simple, instant, and convenient for customers, said the bank.

Nasscom Foundation along with Google has set up a call centre 'DigiVaani' in collaboration with a not-for-profit body ISAP to help women farmers scale up their business.The project is being run on a pilot basis to initially reach out to 20,000 rural women entrepreneurs across six states — Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The IRDAI has formed two task forces to study issues the non-life insurance and life insurance industries face in reinsurance support. The two have to give reports in three weeks.Reinsurance support refers to insurance companies transferring a part of the risk they underwrite to other firms. The task force for the non-life insurance industry has nine members and it will be headed by Bhargav Dasgupta, MD&CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance. For the life insurance industry, a seven-member task force has been constituted under the chairmanship of Naveen Tahilyani, MD&CEO, TATA AIA Life Insurance.

SBICAP Ventures Limited (SVL), a subsidiary of the State Bank of India (SBI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India for establishing the Trilateral Development Cooperation Fund (TDC Fund).The TDC Fund will route India’s commitment of approx. INR 175 Cr to the Global Innovation Development Fund (GIP Fund) – an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) proposed to be established in partnership with the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) under the India – UK Global Innovation Partnership (GIP).

The Reserve Bank of India unveiled a rupee settlement system for international trade, aiming to promote growth of global trade with emphasis on exports from India and to support the increasing interest of global trading community in Indian Rupee.According to the new system, banks will need to seek prior approval to use. The new order takes immediate effect.

The defence ministry allowed three private sector banks to provide financial services to it for overseas procurement of military hardware. The banks are HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank.Till now, only authorised public sector banks were utilised to provide services like issuance of letters of credit and direct bank transfers to the ministry for overseas procurement.

Non-bank payment system operators (PSOs) will require prior approval of the RBI for any takeover or acquisition of control, which may or may not result in change of management.They would also require prior approval of the RBI for sale or transfer of payment activity to an entity not authorised for undertaking such an activity

Domestic rating agency Crisil lowered its real GDP growth forecast for India to 7.3 per cent in FY23 from 7.8 per cent estimated earlier.It attributed the downward revision to higher oil prices, slowing of export demand and high inflation. This is in line with the RBI's estimate of 7.2 real GDP growth for this fiscal year.

Google and Airtel have executed an Investment Agreement (IA) per which the Google proposes to acquire a minority and non-controlling stake of 1.28% of equity share capital in the Target. Along with the IA, the Acquirer and the Target through their affiliates have also entered into certain commercial deals.

India-based fintech Mufin Finance has been granted in-principal RBI approval for issuance of semi-closed prepaid payment instruments. A semi-closed PPI licence allows digital banks, fintech firms, and large consumer-facing applications to roll out features such as digital payment solutions for lending.

Led by increased lending by private sector banks, loans disbursed to MSME sector grew by a massive 182% in FY22 to Rs 37 trillion as compared to the pre-covid levels, as per a study conducted by credit bureau CRIF High Mark. 

Tamil Nadu has displaced West Bengal to emerge as the largest State in terms of the outstanding portfolio of microfinance loans. According to MFIN Micrometer Q4 FY21-22, a quarterly report published by Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), the gross loan portfolio (GLP) of Tamil Nadu as of March 31, 2022 stood at ₹36,806 crore. It was followed by Bihar (₹35,941 crore) and West Bengal (₹34,016 crore).

The core theme of the vision documents is 'E-Payments for Everyone, Everywhere, Everytime' (4Es) with an overall objective to provide every user with safe, secure, fast, convenient, accessible and affordable e-payment options.