Articles and Updates

BUDGET: NO ‘BIG BANG’ BUT PROGRESS FOR FINANCIAL SECTOR
  • Sawant Singh -

With the growing integration of India into the global economy and with the sheer size of the Indian economy, the country’s budget speech has become a keenly anticipated event. Rating agencies, multinational companies and global financial institutions now join Indian companies, financial institutions and individuals in trying to read the “tea leaves” and predict policy changes in the coming budget. The buildup to the 2015-16 budget speech on 28 February was par

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CONCEPT PAPER ON FINANCE SEZS: A WELCOME INITIATIVE
  • Sawant Singh -

An increasing amount of business in Indian rupee denominated financial products and other financial products dependent on the performance of the Indian economy is either being conducted offshore or is being shifted to offshore locations such as Singapore and Dubai. As business in these products not only creates jobs in the financial services sector but also in other sectors that benefit the local economy, successive Indian governments have recognized the importance of establishing an

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WILL PAYMENTS BANKS HELP FOSTER FINANCIAL INCLUSION?
  • Sawant Singh -

Unlike jurisdictions such as Singapore, India did not (until very recently) have differentiated licensing for banks, i.e. granting licences for conducting a specific line of banking business. The prevalence of universal banking licences coupled with the burden of fulfilling increasingly stringent prudential norms meant that banks that received licences rarely ventured outside Indian cities which were their main profit centres. Consequently, the avowed goal of successive central gove

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BANKING CIRCLES WELCOME CIRCULAR ON WILFUL DEFAULTS
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The master circular on wilful defaulters issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

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AMENDMENTS GIVE MORE TEETH TO SECURITIES REGULATOR
  • Sawant Singh -

The policy paralysis plaguing India's regulatory system seems to have abated with the notification of the Securities Laws (Amendment) Act, 2014, on 22 August. The act had already enjoyed two terms in force as ordinances promulgated by the president of India.

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