Single authority for sanctioning, processing GST refunds likely by August

• The current mechanism entails a twin refund sanctioning authority of the central and state tax officers
• Under the proposed mechanism, once a refund claim is filed with a tax officer, whether Centre or state, the officer will check, assess and sanction full tax refund

Narendra Modi to be sworn in as Prime Minister on 30 May

• This will be the first time when a non-Congress party has managed to secure a majority on its own for the second consecutive term after Indira Gandhi had won in 1971
• This, after the Bharatiya Janata Party won 303 seats in the seven-phased national polls

Seven of top 10 firms add ₹1.42 trillion in m-cap, RIL shines

• Market mood was buoyant after the Bharatiya Janata Party won over 300 seats in Lok Sabha elections 2019
• RIL, the country's most valued firm, emerged as the best performer among the top-10 entities

Creating terrorism-free environment key for regional peace: Modi tells Pak PM

• Imran Khan had on May 23 congratulated Modi on Twitter on his electoral triumph
• Modi and Imran Khan are slated to come face to face at Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Bishkek in June

L&T hikes stake in Mindtree by 2%, picks up shares worth ₹316 crore last week

• L&T acquired shares from the open market throughout the week
• L&T mopped up about 32.25 lakh shares during the said week

Financial sector reforms NDA-2 needs to roll out in second term

• The government will need to keep the momentum of reforms in pension, tax and other sectors going
• A single regulator for all retirement and pension products and a single tax structure would be the two key reforms

Modi's new government formation, GDP data likely to drive market this week

• BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will soon form the new government
• Investors would also keep close eye on the progress of monsoon at home and global factors, says analyst

SpiceJet adds 100th plane to fleet, fourth domestic airline to do so

• SpiceJet achieved the feat after national carrier Air India, now defunct Jet Airways and rival IndiGo
• Spicejet in a release said it has added some 23 planes in the last one month alone

Jagan Reddy meets PM Modi, presses for Andhra special status

• YSRCP supremo on Sunday invited PM Narendra Modi for his swearing-in as CM in Vijayawada on 30 May
• The YSRCP stormed to power on Thursday with a landslide victory in assembly polls

Eight candidates in the fray to replace Theresa May as British PM

• While hard Brexiteer Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, is seen as the frontrunner to succeed May, the contest still remains wide open to at least seven other contenders
• Prospective candidates have already begun laying out their bids for the top job

Odisha governor invites Naveen Patnaik to form govt after he stakes claim

• The BJD won 112 of the 146 assembly seats in the recently concluded assembly polls
• Patnaik is scheduled to be sworn in as the chief minister for a record fifth consecutive term on 29 May

Modi likely to visit Maldives in his first foreign tour after election win

• Narendra Modi may travel to Male on 7-8 June
• Ties between India and the Maldives have altered dramatically after the election of Ibrahim Mohammed Solih as president in September

Virat Kohli sees positives in lower order despite New Zealand drubbing

• Twice champions India slumped to 39-4 in the 11th over before all-rounders Hardik Pandya (30) and Ravindra Jadeja (54) offered some resistance
• Virat Kohli said The Oval surface got easier to bat on as the game progressed.

CSO, MOSPI to be merged into National Statistical Office

• The National Statistical Office (NSO) will be headed by MOSPI secretary
• The move will streamline and strengthen the current nodal functions of MOSPI and bring in more synergy by integrating its administrative functions within the ministry of statistics and programme implementation

After Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, win Sabka Vishwas: Modi to NDA parliamentarians

• 'We are for the 130 crore people of the country, we cannot differentiate between anyone'
• Narendra Modi was on Saturday elected leader of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance

Naresh Goyal and wife stopped from flying out of India

• The Enforcement Directorate and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs are examining the books of Jet Airways and its wing Jet Privilege
• Jet Airways was grounded on 17 April due to severe cash crunch and for not servicing its debt obligations

Not collaborating with any car manufacturers: Ashok Leyland on Tesla rumour

• Ashok Leyland Ltd has lined up a capex plan of ₹2,000 crore spread over two years
• Ashok Leyland registered and a net profit of ₹1,983 crore last fiscal

External benchmarks for retail loans can pose risk for banks, for now

• While retail loans like credit cards, personal loans are growing, consumers are concerned about banks not being able to pass on interest rate changes to them
• Shanti Ekambaram, president, consumer banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank, talks about how banks are dealing with consumer issues

Opinion | What you must do before your child goes to college

You must also remember to insure yourself against death while your child studies

Health policies that offer maternity benefit have extra waiting period

• As a standard exclusion in regular health insurance plans, newborns are not covered for the first 90 days
• If your car was not insured at the time of claim, then you can’t take a back-dated cover and make a claim

Markets likely to remain euphoric, focus may shift to earnings, global cues

• Benchmark indices might not give any direction this week but could face mild downward pressure and Indian markets will finally align with global mood, say analysts
• Participants may start to shift their focus to policy reforms, earnings growth, analysts said

Finance Ministry to launch ETF with bank stocks, fin institutions this fiscal

• After the resounding success of CPSE ETF and Bharat-22 ETF, the govt is looking at diversifying the ETF basket by including stocks PSU banks, financial institutions
• The Finance Ministry has also started consultations with global investors for launching CPSE-scrip based ETF in overseas market

NBFC crisis, NPAs, eKYC key areas of concern of NDA's second term

• Banking and fintech industries are key to the everyday needs of most consumers
• The government, along with RBI, will have to work on providing liquidity to NBFCs

GST, biofuels push on the wish list of oil & gas companies in NDA's second term

• Bringing natural gas in under GST would make the transport (of natural gas) across the country more efficient
• Biofuel is another segment which awaits a hard push from the government

RBI releases draft liquidity framework guidelines for ailing NBFCs

• NBFCs will have to maintain minimum high quality liquid assets of 100% of total net cash outflows over the following 30 calendar days
• The LCR is proposed for all deposit taking NBFCs, and non-deposit taking NBFCs with an asset size of 50 billion rupees ($720 million) and above

Rahul Gandhi offers to resign as Congress president, CWC rejects

• The Congress Working Committee authorised Rahul Gandhi to take all the required steps to restructure the party
• The resolution adopted by the CWC also called for a 'thorough introspection and complete overhaul' of the party at the earliest, while committing to bring about a plan soon to this effect

Governor invites Jagan Mohan Reddy to form govt in Andhra Pradesh

• The swearing-in ceremony will be held at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation stadium, Vijayawada, on 30 May
• Reddy, son of late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, led his YSR Congress to a landslide, winning 151 of the 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh

Delhi may gain from US-China trade war by slashing own tariffs

• A panel report recommends that India’s upper range of tariffs and number of tariff rates should be reduced over a five-year period
• The panel also says after reducing customs tariffs for over two decades, India’s average tariffs were hiked in 2017

FPIs pull out ₹4,375 crore from Indian capital markets in May so far

• FPIs withdrew a net sum of ₹2,048 crore from equities and ₹2,309.86 crore from the debt market during 2-24 May, taking the total net outflow to ₹4,375.86 crore
• Prior to this, FPIs had infused a net amount of ₹16,093 crore in April, ₹45,981 crore in March and ₹11,182 crore in February

India's coal import rises 13% to 21 MT in April

• Of the total imports during April 2019, non-coking coal or thermal coal shipments were at 15.08 MT
• Coal and coke imports during 2018-19 increased by 9.66% to 235.35 MT as compared to 214.61 MT imported in FY2017-18

1.37 crore formal sector jobs created in FY19, shows EPFO subscription data

• CSO used addition to the EPF subscriber base to derive employment generation
• However former Chief Statistician of India Pronab Sen, the data only shows the growth in the organised sector

L&T hikes shareholding in Mindtree to 28.45%, picks up 24.9 lakh shares

• After the latest transaction, L&T's shareholding in Mindtree stands at 28.45%
• On Thursday, L&T had acquired 4.5 lakh shares of Mindtree from the open market

Narendra Modi meets President Ram Nath Kovind, stakes claim to form government

• President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Modi to the office of the Prime Minister of India, and asked him to decide the council of ministers and the date of his swearing-in ceremony
• In the first back-to-back majority in LS polls for a single party in over three decades, the BJP won 303 seats out of 542

Downfall of Theresa May, the Prime Minister broken by brexit

• For May, 62, it was the end she had dreaded but could no longer avoid
• Here's how Brexit policy finally came together to oppose the prime minister’s last desperate plan

How wealth and crime shaped the 2019 elections

Contests in constituencies were largely between two rich candidates while others lagged behind

NTPC profit jumps nearly 49% to ₹4,350 crore in March quarter

• NTPC Ltd recommended a final dividend for 2018-19 at the rate of 25­% of the paid-up share capital
• NTPC's total income slipped to ₹22,545.61 crore in the March quarter from 23,617.83 crore year ago

The most luxurious train in the world

• Travelling by rail? The author of an around the world rail-travel book has some tips
• Always find out the emergency number in every single country you’re travelling in

Novartis gets US approval for $2.1 million gene therapy

• Zolgensma was a one-time treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that affects about 1 in 10,000 births
• New gene therapy was a transformative new type of treatment and was 50 percent cheaper than current treatments, says Novartis

New direct tax code draft by July-end

• Finance minister Arun Jaitley extends deadline till 31 July for a task force to come up with a new draft direct tax code
• The proposed new direct tax code will replace the Income Tax Act of 1961

How to fund your start-up dream

• Although there are many options for funding, always have a strategy to repay the money
• According to Nasscom report, India will be home to 10,500 start-ups by 2020

Opinion | How Brexit consumed a British prime minister

Theresa May couldn’t break a political stalemate that’s British national divisions. That’s her legacy, but only partly her fault

Liquor firms cheer end of poll dry days

• Sale of alcohol was barred at stores, bars, restaurants and hotels 48 hours before polling ended
• The elections were held across seven phases from 11 April to 19 May. 23 May, the day of counting, was also a dry day

IHH to proceed with Fortis open offer after Supreme Court lifts stay

• IHH said the delay in the open offer is due to a Supreme Court stay in a contempt case by Daiichi Sankyo
• The delay is due to the stay imposed on the open offer by the Supreme Court in the contempt case filed by Daiichi Sankyo

Basic checklist for homes under construction

• Ready-to-move housing is the new flavour of the season
• Though the price difference between under-construction and ready-to-move homes has reduced, it has not vanished altogether

Diageo wins $135 million claim against Vijay Mallya in UK court

• Diageo is seeking a total of $175 million from embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya
• Over and above the $135 million, Mallya is liable to pay interest incurred at a commercial rate

Event risk over, but key issues aren't fading soon and markets know that

Beyond the elections, the focus now shifts to fundamental issues such as consumption slowdown, unemployment, liquidity crisis and fiscal position

How to start investing from your first pay cheque

• The right way to inculcate the discipline of savings and investment is to start setting aside certain amount that you can spare from the first pay cheque itself
• There are more millennials who have taken the baton of managing the household from their first paycheck itself

'India lucky to have him as PM', Trump congratulates Modi, fixes meet at G-20

• Both Modi and Trump agreed to work together for further enhancing the strategic partnership between India and the
• The meeting between the two comes as the US is set to withdraw some preferential trade measures for IndiaUS

What happens on iPhone doesn't stay there: Customer sues Apple for selling data

• Apple iTunes customers from Rhode Island and Michigan sued Friday in federal court in San Francisco
• The disclosure of Apple iTunes customers’ personal data isn’t only unlawful but can also be dangerous

HDFC sells 6.1% in subsidiary Gruh to comply with RBI directive

• The sale was carried out through stock exchanges at the prevailing market price
• HDFC has mopped up ₹1,327.89 crore by selling the stake in Gruh Finance

How people gave a thumbs up to Modi’s politics of performance

• Voters posed trust in Modi’s leadership for his welfare schemes like Jan Dhan Yojana
• The Modi govt took a few policy missteps but came back strongly with focus on social sector schemes

Operation Bengal pays off for BJP

Riding on a latent anti-incumbency, the BJP devised a unique campaign strategy to take on Mamata Banerjee

Ten charts that explain the 2019 Lok Sabha verdict

India seems to be witnessing the rise of a new political order, with a broad-based Hindu alliance driving the growth of the Bharatiya Janata Party

RBI tweaks norms on VRR investment by FPIs

• VRR for investments by FPIs was introduced on March 1
• The revised VRR scheme will open for allotment from May 27

PM Modi may take oath of office on Thursday

• The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a record 303 seats, according to the latest data available
• The new Cabinet is also likely to be sworn in on Thursday

New  govt has its task cut out amid turbulence in economy

Govt needs to fix slowdown in consumer demand, falling investments and slowing exports amid global trade wars

Karnataka: JD(S)-Congress to continue coalition government

• Deputy CM Parameshwara says the JD(S)-Congress will continue its term in office as the election mandate was for the Lok Sabha and not for the state
• An informal cabinet meet was convened by CM Kumaraswamy to discuss the next course of action for the state government