Banks to hold public meets with NBFCs until 15 Oct in 400 districts: Sitharaman

• The move is an attempt to increase credit disbursement ahead of the upcoming festive season
• Sitharaman said she has asked banks no stressed MSME should be declared an NPA till 31 March, 2020

Sitharaman may announce more measures on Friday to support economy

• Sitharaman will address the media on Friday morning ahead of the 37th meeting GST Council
• So far, the govt has announced measures to improve access to credit for small businesses and to enhance the liquidity of non-bank lenders and housing financiers

Global economy seen sliding towards weakest growth in a decade: OECD

• The Paris-based organization cut almost all economic forecasts it made just four months ago as protectionist policies take an increasing toll on confidence and investment
• Manufacturing has born the brunt of the economic crisis brought about by a tit-for-tat trade war between the US and China

Amid sluggish revenue growth, GST Council may go for minor tax tweaks

• GST Council will also consider states' demand for extending the GST cess on select products like automobiles, tobacco beyond 2022 in view of the bleak revenue collection trends
• The items which are likely to see a tax rate reduction on Friday include luxury hotels and outdoor catering services

Despite rising external risks, domestic economy is resilient: Shaktikanta Das

• The RBI Governor says India's foreign debt is only 19.7% of GDP and that should keep its economy resilient
• Das expects Saudi crisis to have only limited impact on inflation and fiscal numbers given the lower subsidy outgo

Will take all decisions on Air India in a defined period of time: Hardeep Puri

• The Civil Aviation Minister said another GoM meeting on Air India will take place soon
• The Air India divestment process is truly underway, said Puri after the GoM meet ended

Sensex sheds 3.5% in 4 days on concerns over slowdown, lower tax mop-up

• The Sensex closed 1.3%, or 470.41 points, lower at 36093.47, while the Nifty 50 was down 1.25% to 10704.80
• According to reports, the government has missed the tax collection target by a wide margin in April-September

SBI puts repo-linked home loans on hold, to launch revamped product on 1 October

• SBI was the first bank to launch a repo-linked home loan in June
• The RBI recently asked banks to link their lending rates on floating rate loans to retail, personal and MSME borrowers to an external benchmark from 1 October

Time to build new Kashmir, says PM Modi in Maharashtra

• PM Modi said that the entire country should come together to build a new Jammu and Kashmir which is free from the cycle of violence
• The prime minister said why are opposition leaders making statements that are being used by the enemies of the country to malign India in the international arena

Youngsters today find shared mobility economical, says Maruti’s Bhargava

Indian automakers are now on par with Europe and America in terms of quality but the purchasing power of domestic buyers has not grown enough to afford the increased product prices, says R.C. Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki India

From hotel tariffs to cars, GST Council to decide to tax rate cut tomorrow

• The argument propagated has been to boost the consumption and domestic demand by reducing Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates further
• It is expected to discuss amendments in GST Laws to accommodate creation of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh as UTs

Driver earnings 8-15% lower in Bengaluru than in other cities, says Uber exec

• Karnataka has fixed a maximum and minimum fare for cab aggregators, with slabs based on the cost of the vehicle
• There has been a lot of protests against the 'surge pricing' or 'dynamic pricing' mechanism

Google enhances India presence with new AI lab, payments and jobs services

• Google Pay will not just be a payments platform but also allow merchants to make their own customised experiences on the platform
• The AI lab will foster India’s AI community and contribute to the company’s global AI initiatives as well

RBI caps term for banks' concurrent auditor at three years

• Earlier the tenure of external concurrent auditors was fixed at five years on a continuous basis
• RBI also said that banks should ensure that the concurrent audit covers risk sensitive areas identified by them as per their specific business models

RBI reserves can fund national security exigencies: Bimal Jalan

• 'It’s up to government and the RBI. The RBI can revise its opinion. It’s not written in stone'
• 'Both the RBI and the finance ministry take action based on the current situation. If circumstances change, the action will change'

TVS launches NTORQ 125 Race Edition scooter. Check price, features

• The new scooter will come with its signature LED DRLs and LED Headlamp
• The NTORQ 125 Race Edition will be available in three tone combination of matte black, metallic black and metallic red colour

The story of LCA Tejas so far

• The Tejas is an indigenous light weight, multi role supersonic aircraft developed in both fighter and trainer versions
• The Tejas is designed to carry a veritable plethora of air-to-air, air-to- surface, precision guided and standoff weaponry

Telangana company to offer ₹1 lakh bonus to each of its 48000 employees

• SCCL is owned by the Telangana government and the Centre on a 51:49 equity basis, earned record net profit of ₹1,765 crore during 2018-19
• The net profit grew from ₹418 crore in 2013-14 to ₹1,765 crore in 2018-19

NASA captures images of Chandrayaan-2's Moon landing site: Official

• The probability of establishing contact with the lander has a deadline of 21 September because after that the Moon region will enter into a lunar night
• Chandrayaan 2's Vikram lander lost communication with ground stations during its final descent

Tata Motors shifts its EV strategy from fleet to personal segment

• Tata Motors announces development of an all-new modular powertrain platform called Ziptron that will power its electric cars for personal segment in the future
• The modular powertrain platform will be capable of providing long running range of up to 250 kms per charge along with the fast charging capability

Monsoon season nears its end, reservoir levels rise to 85% of capacity

• The live water storage increased to 144.179 BCM, which is 85% of the total live storage capacity of 113 reservoirs monitored by water commission
• The water storage is around 26.5 BCM higher than the storage available last year in Sept and 24.25 BCM higher than the average of last 10 years

Banks need to take larger haircuts to solve stress in some NBFCs

• Shaktikanta Das said that the resolution process for the shadow banks will have to be market linked and for this, banks and other lenders will have a major role to play
• Das said that the Finance Bill has given the RBI powers over NBFCs but it would prefer that the resolution of stress be through market mechanisms

Infosys confident of taming high attrition rate with skilling, other incentives

• The attrition rate at Infosys was at 23.4% in April-June, up 3% from 20.4% in the previous quarter
• This was much higher than competitor Tata Consultancy Services' attrition rate of 11.5% in the quarter ended June

‘I’ve been working’ on the economy, Nirmala Sitharaman tweets after criticism

• 'I’ve been working on and regularly speaking about measures we’ve been taking on matters of the economy,' Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman wrote on Twitter
• Sitharaman is due to address a press conference today after a meeting with heads of state-run banks

Fund houses, Kapoor in a bind as Yes Bank stock remains under pressure

• Yes Bank shares fell 5.6% today, making the lender the biggest loser on the Nifty in the first hour of trade
• The stock has dropped a 75% in the last five months and needless to say has spooked everyone, including Kapoor

Don't want banks to only recycle loans with existing customers: Sitharaman

• For every one existing customer who wants a loan, banks will have to bring five fresh customers for loans, the FM told heads of PSU banks at a review meeting on Thursday
• No stressed MSME would be declared an NPA till March 2020, said Sitharaman

Air passenger traffic slows for 3rd straight month, IndiGo market share drops

• Domestic scheduled carriers carried 11.35 million passengers last month, as compared to 11.79 million passengers during the same period of the previous year
• Air passenger traffic in India grew 3.24% in the first eight months of 2019. Traffic in July had fallen to 11.90 million, as compared to 11.55 million during the year-earlier period

RBI keeping a close watch on external sector management: Shaktikanta Das

• The governor added that the outlook for India’s external sector is one of cautious optimism
• Among the challenges facing India, deepening of the global slowdown and escalation of trade and geopolitical tensions appear to be the most significant, Das said

Sensex slumps nearly 500 points, Yes Bank plunges 15%: 10 points

• Strong selling pressure was seen in banking, metal and IT stocks
• Overnight, the US Federal Reserve cut interest rate by 25 basis points

With eye on China, Trump makes it tougher for foreign firms in high-tech US biz

• US has further tightened the rules governing entry of foreign investors into American businesses through takeovers and equity participation in sensitive tech and other high-tech areas
• National security considerations are being cited as the reason for the enhanced scrutiny

Consumer goods companies partner to launch packaging waste management entity

• The entity called 'Karo Sambhav' has been developed by Packaging Association for Clean Environment, an industry body that counts over 30 companies as its members
• 'Karo Sambhav' will work towards recycling packaging material, collection of post-consumer packaging

Rohit Gupta elected as chairman of ASCI

• Gupta, who was serving as ASCI vice-chairman, takes the top role from D. Shivakumar
• Gupta says synchronizing ASCI’s efforts in the digital space will be the key focus for the year

Govt notifies 8.65% rate of interest for over 60 mn EPFO subscribers: Report

• The Central Board of Trustees had approved 8.65% interest rate for FY19 on 21 February this year
• EPFO manages ₹11 trillion retirement corpus

JSW Steel promoters repay debt, release ₹1,149 crore pledged shares

• Debt was repaid by 3 promoter entities—JSW Techno, Sahyog Holdings and Vividh Finvest—that got their pledged shares released
• Percentage of pledged promoter holdings declined to 2.47% of total promoter holdings in the June quarter

No contact with Lander Vikram, Orbiter begins experiments on moon : Isro

• National-level committee consisting of academicians and ISRO experts are analysing the cause of communication loss with lander, says Isro
• Lander Vikram, with rover Pragyan housed inside it, lost communication with ground station on 7 Sept during its final descent

RBI may not allow lenders to offer teaser home loans

• The discussion around teaser loans started after RBI directed banks to link their floating rate retail loans to an external benchmark earlier this month
• The central bank has not been in favour of these products ever since SBI first introduced them in 2009-10

Oil crisis to have limited impact on inflation, fiscal numbers: Shaktikanta Das

• Drone attacks on the world's largest oil refinery in Saudi Arabia has lead to a massive 20% surge in crude prices
• Das said he expects the Saudi crisis to have only limited impact on inflation

Opinion | The Modi-led revolution that impressed Bill Gates

It’s a false charge that the Gates Foundation has gone by inflated government data in its decision to award the prime minister for the Swachh Bharat Mission

Indian Railways adding extra seats for train passengers. Thanks to new tech

• The Railways is planning to replace one of the power cars with a new compartment
• A total of 342 trains have already been converted into HOG or Head on Generation technology under which the power will be drawn from the overhead electric supply

Huawei’s new Android phone lacks luster without Google apps

• The Huawei Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro mark the brand’s first top-of-the-range device launch since it was forbidden in the spring from trading with American partners
• In May, the US government blacklisted Huawei

Gadkari defends MV Act; says Act is not for raising revenues but saving lives

• Nitin Gadkari pointed out that approximately 5 lakh deaths take place in India each year due to violation of traffic laws
• This comes at a time of opposition from some states starting with Gujarat to the fines that were implemented from 1 September

Alexa now supports Apple Music in India

• Amazon announces support for Apple Music on its platform, meaning users will be able to add the service as a skill through their Alexa app
• Users will be able to give their speakers voice commands to play their playlists or curated playlists from Apple Music

Air Marshal RKS Bhadauria to be the next Air Force Chief

• Bhadauria was commissioned into the fighter pilot stream of Indian Air Force in June 1980
• Air Marshal Bhadauria was due to retire the same day as Dhanoa but now will have a two year term in office