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.