EPS 4 t h January, 2019
Newsletter
Econom ics, Politics and Social Sciences I nter est
Group, IIM Koz hikode
Jet fuel prices cut by 14.7% in biggest reduction ever
- The price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) was
slashed by Rs. 9,900 per kilolitre, or 14.7%.
- The price notification was issued by the OMCs and
is the second straight monthly reduction, after a
10.9%
- The move is expected to provided much needed relief
to cash strapped airlines
“NBFCs may have made
- State owned fuel retailers revise rates of ATF on the
strides in the recent past,
1st of every month based on average international oil
but are still lost in the
rate and rupee-US dollar exchange rate in the
woods”- Uday Kotak
preceding month
RBI seeks to aid troubled small businesses, releases new
guideline
- The Reserve Bank took steps to relax crushing debt
burdens on MSME (Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises) and allowed restructuring of loans under
certain circumstances.
- The RBI allowed restructuring of loans upto Rs. 25
crore in default but standard category
- This is to be a one-time restructuring only and would be
permitted without an asset classification downgrade
EPS Newsletter Page 2
In first, NASA
PNB revises FD interest rates Spaceship begins orbit
- State run Punjab National Bank has revised its interest rates for of asteroid
fixed maturities - The NASA
- PNB will now pay 5.75% interest for deposits of upto Rs. 1 crore spacecraft OSIRIS-
for maturity periods between 7 and 45 days Rex, became the
- In contrast, the bank previously paid 5.7% interest for these first ever spacecraft
maturities to orbit around an
China seeks trade pact with India asteroid
- China has sought talks with India to allay fears of a regional - The asteroid Bennu
trade pact it is spearheading becomes the
- India is concerned about the Regional Comprehensive Economic smallest ever object
Agreement, which may flood the region with Chinese goods, to be circled by a
reducing the export competitiveness of Indian goods spaceship
- India’s imports from China have been rising steadily for a while, - NASA said the
with the deficit reaching $55.6 billion in 2017 compared to achievement
$48.19 billion in 2015 represented a “leap
NBFCs still lost deep in the woods: Uday Kotak for humankind”
- Veteran banker Uday Kotak says although NBFCs have made because the asteroid
strides in the financial sector in recent years, the sector is more is said to have
fragile than it was a year ago. barely enough
- This fragility is down to a liquidity crunch coupled with high gravitational force
interest rates as the financial savings post demonetisation came to keep a moving
back into circulation vehicle on its
surface
BJP lawmaker says Indian banks shouldn’t adhere to global capital adequacy norms
- Lawmaker Nishikant Dubey affirmed his belief that Indian banks need not adhere to Basel III norms as
they lead to provisioning of capital and build up of NPAs
- The Reserve Bank of India has directed Indian banks to adhere to Basel III norms in a phased manner
- This requires the maintenance of a common equity ratio of 8% and a total capital ratio of 11.5%
Paytm Payments Bank resumes KYC for bank, wallet customers
- Paytm Payments Bank Ltd. restarted its process of KYC after receiving a nod
from the RBI
- The RBI had directed Paytm Payments Bank Ltd. to stop onboarding new
customers after certain observations it made about the KYC process in an
audit
- Payments banks can accept deposits up to Rs. 1 lakh
NCLT allows govt. to open Il&FS group’s past financial
statements
- The National Company Law Tribunal allowed the
government’s plea to open past financial statements of
Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Group for
“Liquidity crunch in
re-examination and recasting the system is a
- The Ministry of Corporate Affairs had suspected that the major concern and
books were prepared in a fraudulent manner to paint a rosy
liquidity problems
picture
- This conclusion was the result of an independent are becoming
investigation by the ICAI and the Serious Fraud more and more
Investigation Office (SFIO) commonplace”-
- The auditors involved viz. SRBC & Co., Deloitte Haskins &
Sells and BSR associates have opposed the move. Uday Kotak
EPS Newsletter
Page 4
Cooperation best for both China and US: Xi to Trump
- President Xi Jinping reiterated his commitment to maintaining
cooperation and diplomatic relations between China and the
United States
- The two countries recently called a 90 day ceasefire on their
bitter trade war that has seen them repeatedly level tariffs on
each other’s goods
- Donald Trump reciprocated the gesture and said it was his
responsibility to ensure that diplomatic relations are sustained
“I attach great importance to the development
of China-US relations and am willing to work
with President Trump to summarize the
experience of the development of US-China
relations and implement the consensus we
have reached in a joint effort to advance US-
China relations featuring coordination,
cooperation and stability so as to better benefit
the two peoples as well as the rest of the
world”- Xi Jinping
EPS Newsletter
Page 5
Sabarimala is about tradition, Triple justice and equality, Sabarimala was a
Talaq a matter of gender equality: PM deeply religious issue
Modi - He pointed to many Islamic countries
- PM Modi sought to defend apparent also banning the practice of Triple
double standards in his and the BJP’s Talaq and reiterated a dissenting view
attitudes towards the issues of Triple (of Justice Indu Malhotra) in the
Talaq and Sabarimala Supreme Court judgement allowing
- The Prime Minister affirmed that while women of menstruating age to enter the
Triple Talaq was a matter of social temple
Bank’s gross bad loans improved to 10.8 % in
September
- The RBI communicated an improvement in bank
asset quality in a notification.
- The gross non-performing assets stood at 11.5%
in March 2018
- Net NPAs also showed a decline to 5.3%
compared to the corresponding figure of 6.2%
in March 2018
