National Housing Bank (NHB) expects Housing finance companies (HFCs) to raise funds through the external commercial borrowings (ECBs) as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reviewed ECB norms. HFCs may avail ECBs to fund their affordable housing projects, NHB, which is the regulator of the sector said. RV Verma, Chairman of NHB said the regulator received an application from HDFC for ECB and it expe
Category: Infrastructure Finance
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India Infradebt to issue Rs 5 bn worth debentures
In order to finance infrastructure projects, India Infradebt is in the process of issuing Rs 500 crore worth of debenture. The debenture was assigned AAA/Stable rating by CRISIL. ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Life Insurance Corporation of India and Citicorp Finance (India) jointly promoted Infradebt as an infrastructure debt fund (IDF) in the non-banking financial company
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RBI trains guns on speculative position in NDF mkt
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) feels that foreign units of Indian companies and foreign companies in which part of equity is held by Indian firms have a role to play in the depreciation of rupee against the dollar. The central bank feels that these entities may be taking speculative position in the non-deliverable forward (NDF) market resulting in the depreciation of rupee against the
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RBI relaxes norms for bank credit to MFIs
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxed the norms for categorising priority sector lending of commercial banks to microfinance institutions (MFIs). According to the present norms, banks can categorise credit extended to MFIs as priority sector lending if
if at least 75 per cent of loans given by MFIs is for income generating activity. Now, the central bank relaxed this limit to at least 70 per cent. Thus, according to the relaxed norm, bank credi
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Oil ministry adopts finance ministry’s terms of reference
Reports indicate that the union petroleum ministry adopted the terms of reference proposed by the finance ministry for the committee set up under former Planning Commission member Kirit S Parikh. Originally, the oil ministry had proposed that the committee be asked 'to revisit the current pricing methodology of import parity or trade parity' for petro
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CSL mulls Rs 20 bn investment to raise capacity
Media reports indicate that Cochin Shipyard (CSL) would invest almost Rs 2,000 crore towards its capacity expansion plan in the coming years by raising funds through an initial public offering (IPO). The company would raise part of the funds needed for this investment through the proposed IPO. The capacity expansion plan of the firm is part of its ambition to become a leading international shipbuilding and repair yard.
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Punjab govt allots Rs 25 bn for various projects
In order to implement various projects in the sewerage, water supply, road, housing and other sectors in Ludhiana, Punjab government allocated Rs 2,499.74 crore. The amount includes Rs 1,352.20-crore to upgrade road infrastructure, including 8 laning of Ferozepur Road from Sidhwan Canal to MC limit, among others. The government allotted Rs 398.35 crore for upgrade of Ham
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Press notes on FDI notified by RBI
Press notes 2 and 3 of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) have been notified by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently. The notes, which have been pending for the last four years, relate to guidelines for foreign direct investment (FDI), defining control over the company and transfer of ownership. The press notes provide definition of 'owned or controlled', a term which is essential to determine whet
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Liquidity improves in banking system
Liquidity in the banking system has eased as is evident from the decline in the borrowing of banks through Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) liquidity adjustment facility (LAF). Money market participants feel that the easing liquidity may be because the government has already started spending. On a recent day, banks borrowed Rs 10,880 crore through RBI's LAF and this is sharply lower than over Rs 100
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Bank credit to housing sector declines since FY08
The financial stability report of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shows bank credit to the housing sector declined to 9.5 percent in 2012-13 from a high 13.3 percent in 2007-08. The report notes that the decline in the growth of bank credit to the sector brought down demand. However, despite this, house prices in some metropolitan cities have witnessed significant increases in the recent past, the report notes