India's household debt climbed to 41.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of March 2025, marking a sustained rise from its five-year average of 38.3 per cent, with consumption-related loans accounting for bulk of the borrowings, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report.
While EPF rewards patience and compounds your money, inflation decides how far your money really goes.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India rose 18 per cent to $35.18 billion during April-September this fiscal year, while the inflow from the US more than doubled to $6.62 billion during the first half of this fiscal, according to government data released on Monday. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during April-September FY24 stood at $29.79 billion.
The continued MF buying has pushed the equity holding of MFs to over Rs 50 trillion for the first time.
India's equity markets may have expanded rapidly, but initial public offerings (IPOs) are increasingly becoming exit vehicles for early investors rather than as engines for raising long-term capital, a shift that undermines the spirit of public markets, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran warned on Monday at a CII event.
The strong domestic flow offset selling by foreign portfolio investors who pulled out $23.3 billion (Rs 2.03 trillion) from domestic equity markets in CY25.
Issuers have allotted nearly four times as much to mutual funds (MFs) as they have to insurance companies in recent quarters. MFs invested Rs 21,976 crore as anchor investors in initial public offerings (IPOs) on a trailing four-quarter basis, according to data from Prime Database.
'Other sectors that manage the savings pools of Indians are giving tough competition to life insurance companies.'
'Self-declaration from the customer in case of no change in KYC information or change only in the address details may be obtained.'
The outlook for India's financial sector appears bright, but it needs to brace for likely vulnerabilities, said Economic Survey 2023-24 tabled in Parliament on Monday. The Indian financial sector is at a "turnpike moment", it said, adding that the dominance of banking support to credit is being reduced, and the role of capital markets is rising. For a country that aspires to be a developed nation by 2047, this is a long-awaited and welcome development, it said.
The share of equity and investment funds in the total financial wealth of households increased by more than 50% between 2011-2012 and 2022-2023.
Amid the Budget preparation, the revenue department is assessing the feasibility of further adjustments to maximise benefits for salaried individuals.
The finance minister continues to be backed by the same policy team in charting out the broad strategy as in the few earlier Budgets.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said the National Rural Livelihood Mission has achieved remarkable success by mobilising rural women into 1 lakh SHGs (self help groups).
Schuldschein is an alternative way to raise funds instead of loans or bonds and deals can run from $12 million to more than $1.13 billion. These instruments include tranches of different maturities and currencies and investors are spread across the world.
The failure of SVB was due to idiosyncratic reasons, but shows how higher rates can expose fault lines in unforeseen places, observes Neelkanth Mishra.
No capital came in through the approval route, while the rest of $9,86,681 was by way of issuance of rupee denominated bonds.
Govt is using Census 2011 as basis for charting out its financial inclusion plan.
The party released its manifesto -- Samajwadi Vachan Patra -- for the coming assembly elections, shortly after the BJP released its own.
The Cabinet has cleared a Bill to set up a government-owned development finance institution (DFI) with initial paid-up capital of Rs 20,000 crore so that it can leverage around Rs 3 trillion from the markets in a few years to provide long-term funds to infrastructure projects as well as for development needs of the country. To put it in perspective, Rs 3 trillion constitutes slightly less than 3 per cent of the Rs 111 trillion to be spent on over 7,000 projects in the National Infrastructure Pipeline from 2019-20 to 2024-25. Besides, the government will give Rs 5,000 crore as grant to the institution, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday told the media after the Cabinet meeting.
Indian tax laws are a source of frustration for US companies, says US Ambassador to India Nancy J Powell.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said financial inclusion will continue to be a "policy priority" for the central bank to make the post-pandemic recovery more equitable and sustainable. The Reserve Bank of India will very soon be coming out with the first financial inclusion index, which will assess progress in terms of access, usage and quality, Das said, while speaking at the Economic Times Financial Inclusion Summit. It is the responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure that the financial ecosystem (including the digital medium) is inclusive and capable of effectively addressing risks like mis-selling, cybersecurity, data privacy and promoting trust in the financial system through appropriate financial education and awareness, he added.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday described as 'immoral and unethical' the decision by the 'minority' government at the Centre to hike FDI in insurance and pension sectors, and called on all United Progressive Alliance partners to quit the government in protest.
The new Bill proposes to raise the FDI to 49 per cent from the current 26 per cent.
As per the latest finance ministry data, the total balance in over 36.06 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts was at Rs 1,00,495.94 crore as on July 3.
In the wake of reforms announced by the government in insurance and pension sectors, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said that while it is not opposed to more Foreign Direct Investment in these areas, certain caveats and conditions should be met to "safeguard the interest of the people".
Addressing a G20 Summit session, Modi also presented his '5-I' vision to maximise digital technology for social benefit.
UPA key ally Trinamool Congress on Thursday strongly opposed allowing FDI in key sectors like retail, insurance and aviation arguing that it would be harmful for the people of the country.
The two states account for 24% of total accounts opened under financial inclusion scheme.
Encourage domestic savings by providing tax incentives for investment in insurance and pension schemes.
Government has set up a Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission to streamline the financial sector laws.
The EPFO has about 3.7 crore (37 million) members.
At the same time, the survey also suggested broadening the long-term debt markets by liberalising the investment norms for insurance and pension funds and said that the government could consider a guarantee mechanism for credit enhancement of long-term infrastructure debt.
Irda asks insurance companies to increase risk cover from July 1
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the government would like to 'take forward' financial sector reforms like insurance and pension, but added caveats that suggested the road ahead was not smooth.
Talking to reporters outside Parliament, Dr Singh said: "We have wasted a lot of time in the last two-three sessions and hope this is not repeated in this session. The government is willing to discuss all issues on the floor of the House."
We are hoping to have an exposure of over $300 million over the next two years. We would also evaluate opportunities to invest in other asset classes including equity and structured products.
The ministry of labour and employment plans to implement social security programmes only for the poorest of the poor in the unorganised sector, to begin with.
The Bharatiya Janata Party said it is pro-economic reform but wants the government to stoop before it can conquer on securing its support for key legislative changes, chiefly in banking, insurance and pensions, which form part of the reform agenda.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would expedite action on implementing the long-awaited reforms in the banking, insurance and pension sectors once the government managed to win the trust vote in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, government sources said on Saturday.
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